Social & Culture
South Asia is a cultural rather than a geopolitical construct. The intraregional and inter-regional migrations of people demonstrate that the South Asian cultural space is not limited to what is usually conceived as South Asia (the sub-Himalayan countries of the Indian sub-continent and the island nation of Maldives). The Rohingyas of Myanmar and the Afghan refugees in Pakistan are cases in point. Both migrations happened into South Asia due to cultural affinities existing across the borders.
Plural identities and plural culture in South Asia
Plurality consists in the existence of a mix of multiple heterogeneous communities differing in their beliefs, language, and cultural and social norms, as well as in the geographical terrain they inhabit, ranging from hills, mountains, and river valleys on the one hand to sandy deserts or seas on the other. In a plural society, all the different autonomous units are woven together into a smooth cultural and social fabric characterized by interactive engagement in complete harmony.
South Asia is marked by its varying geographical conditions, ethnic and cross-ethnic diversity, and multifarious systems of beliefs, values, customs, and rituals. Political boundaries separate nations but do not separate cultures. The demographic and traditional similarities between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan, India and Nepal, Bangladeshis and the Rohingyas of Myanmar, Nepalis and the Lhotshampas of Bhutan all demonstrate that inter-state and inter-regional cultural links exist. This is ample proof that South Asian societies are not marked by their national boundaries but by plural cultures and plural identities co-existing as one.
Countries of South Asia have a common tendency to take pride in their cultural diversity. Culture played an important role in a nation state’s political landscape, and there was always the need to acknowledge the plurality of culture within even as a nation tried to build a distinct identity of its own. It is clearly manifested in the expressions of culture, which get reflected in literature, music, cinema, lyrics, drama, paintings, architecture, culinary innovations, etc. The writings of Sadat Hasan Manto, Sahir Ludhianvi, Amrita Pritam, Khushwant Singh, Sunil Gangopadhyay, and the like reflect the transboundary nature of culture.
South-Asian societies are a product of the rich royalties of the past that patronized culture and celebrated its plurality. Buddha is a major unifying motif in South Asian nations. Buddha was born in Nepal; he roamed and died in India. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka propagated Buddhism in the entire region and even beyond. Buddhism is the backbone of Bhutan’s culture. Afghanistan was never inhabited by a single ethnic group; rather, various tribes that shared some common traits lived together as one. Religion was what united them. In the last three decades, however, Afghanistan has suffered successive political transformations, which have dealt a blow to its society and culture, too. For example, it has lost the iconic symbol of plural cultural heritage, the monumental twin statues of Buddha at Bamyan valley, to military strikes. War-ravaged Afghanistan can hope for peace from the plural culture of the South Asian region as multiculturalism breeds tolerance and harmony, keeping racism and bigotry at bay.
Indian society within South Asia
India exhibits a mosaic of socio-cultural heterogeneity, diversities, and pluralities, integrated with a multicultural federal polity. This heterogeneous culture has evolved over centuries through a continuous process of adaptation and amalgamation of the diverse cultural influxes coming with the hordes of invaders---The Aryans, the Sakas, the Huns, the Pathans, The Mughals, and the Europeans.
While the drawing of the geographical boundary at the time of partition divided the population, the overzealous mission of constructing distinctive national identities of their own created yet more boundaries that rejected commonality of any kind whatsoever between the two nation-states, for India, culture as a foreign policy tool in the neighborhood held limited appeal and was often perceived with suspicion. However, there has been a metamorphic change in South Asia in recent years. There is greater openness to accept diverse identities and use culture as an instrument to bring countries and people together. This opens up an opportunity for India to use culture as a foreign policy tool to further regional understanding and bilateral relations.
Culture transcends borders, which is why the people to people level of interaction and exchange bears a tremendous reservoir of goodwill towards one another despite tensions at the border. The run-away success of the movie ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’ and the case of the Indian girl Geeta lost in Pakistan, yet raised as a Hindu there, demonstrate that there are many common threads that bind people across the border and that will continue to bring people together in the entire region.
Linkages of culture and civilization across national borders in the South Asian region owe their origin to the ‘confluence of culture’ that happened because of successive civilizations, namely Indus Valley, Vedic age, Indian kingships, Islamic period, Mughal period, British Imperialism, and the modern age; which also effected a conglomeration of different religions in the region. This plural culture has only ingrained tolerance and peaceful co-existence among the people. It also gets reflected in their archaeology, architecture, arts, aesthetics, food, fashion, diaspora, ideas, institutions, thoughts, and philosophies.
South Asia is a mixed bowl of religions, mainly Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. India, Bhutan, and Nepal have great cultural similarities in terms of religion, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Sufism connects the societies of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. This culture of Islamic mysticism originated in the 10th or 11th century during the Delhi Sultanate and promoted a liberal philosophy of life transcending differences of any kind between humans. Religious festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, Id are common across borders, and food habits are very similar. Political boundaries do not coincide with linguistic boundaries either. Hindi is also spoken in Nepal; Urdu in India; Hindustani in Pakistan; Tamil in Sri Lanka; Bengali in Bangladesh, and so on.
Despite cultural similarities, the economic asymmetry in South Asia inhibits the pace of regional cooperation. Culture can play a role in propelling regional cooperation as the nations of the region share historical linkages. Cross cultural sensitization should be made a continual process so that the negative stereotypes that enter into countries through TV channels can be mitigated. There should be more access to each other’s repositories of culture. Cultural societies and NGOs must work for new harmonization, a realignment of interest. The future of South Asian integration lies in the strategic use of soft power to promote values that benefit the region as a whole. Bilateral economic exchange taking cognizance of each other’s interests can strengthen their relationship and boost cooperation.
Cultural diversity within the borders, and cultural ties beyond, is a unique phenomenon in South Asia. So, policies and programmes based on cultural heritage would be a very effective tool to bring people across borders together and also to overcome political barriers.
