Protecting local cultures amidst unity of all humankind

Bharat Jhunjhunwala, The Statesman, Asia News Network, Calcutta

Social activists are rightly concerned that the spread of western culture through TV, internet and other media will kill cultural diversity in the world. But the objective of mankind is to connect with the whole humanity. We have, therefore, two contradictory objectives before us -- promotion of cultural diversity and promotion of unity. We cannot put cultural diversity on the high pedestal since it can also represent division and fragmentation. The challenge is to move towards unity while maintaining cultural diversity.

The confusion between the two objectives is pervasive. Unesco had said in its 1995 report The Power of Culture: "Global ethics will have to rely on certain universal principles, even if some particular culture may oppose them... It is the Commission's view that these principles are well-grounded in various fundamental ideas which either carry great moral weight themselves or for which good reasons can be marshalled".

The principles enumerated are -- human rights, democracy, protection of minorities, peace and equity. This formulation is contradictory. The talk of "balancing" between these values is fine but that is possible only if we have a central objective around which that can be done.

The cricket captain balances between batsmen and bowlers with the objective of winning the match. He would balance between players from the South and North if the objective was to placate political opposition from certain quarters. Balancing is not possible without such a higher objective. And if there is such a higher objective, these five objectives become non-speaking.

First, members belonging to the minorities must enjoy the same basic rights and freedoms, and the same constitutional safeguards granted to all citizens.

Second, the human rights of all members of majorities and minorities must be guaranteed. Human rights take precedence over any claims to cultural integrity advanced by communities.

Third, tolerance and cultural conviviality should be promoted, encouraging cultural diversity.

The difficulty is that self-governance by the minorities can be positively harmful for all -- including the minority itself. The tribal self-governance laws of Assam, for example, were used by the tribal leaders to allow cutting of forests while this had been banned in non-tribal areas. The Supreme Court had to intervene to limit self-rule in the tribal areas in order to protect the environment. The minority rights, therefore, cannot be the final value.

The International Network for Cultural Diversity said in the paper prepared for its Cape Town conference in 2002: "Individuals acquire their sense of identity, their self-esteem and their core values and world views from the community in which they grow up and live... At another level, cultural and cultural products are located within the realm of hegemonic warfare, within the battle to provide leadership with respect to ideas, values, beliefs and world views whether it is across the globe, within nation states, within communities, institutional or organisations".

The battle lines are clearly drawn. On the one side is cultural identity is seen to arise from local situation and is placed as an end-in-itself; on the other side stands a global culture.

Culture being rooted in the community implies its limitedness. Development means overcoming this limitedness. Culture that has been developed in a limited context cannot, therefore, be venerated. Tribal youth often say that the veneration of their cultures is a strategy to deprive them of the benefits of modernisation and keep them locked into backwardness.

This is the real question -- is the cultural policy reasonable or unreasonable? Whether the policy is that of pluralism or universalism is less relevant than the objective with which it is made. The very idea of Universal Human Rights is indicative of universalism and runs contra cultural diversity. We need an overarching objective against which the efficacy of cultural diversity can be assessed. 'Unity' would be one such objective.

The German philosopher Hegel said that step-by-step friction between thesis and anti-thesis leads to the Absolute Idea. Marx said that development means the establishment of a "classless society". The ultimate objective of class war is not dominance of the proletariat over the capitalist but construction of a society where both lose their limited identities of worker and capitalist. The Hindu tradition holds that there was but one Brahman in the beginning. It thought "let me become many" and so it became. The objective of the separated constituent elements is to regain that oneness or unity.

The most suitable candidate for the overarching objective against which cultural diversity may be assessed is "evolution of collective consciousness". This would mirror Hegel's Absolute Idea, Marx's classless society and Hindu Unity simultaneously. We can decide what and how much cultural diversity to encourage against this objective.

A simile will make the point clear. A gardener has to make a garden. There are many marigold plants growing under a mango tree. The mango tree is being deprived of nutrition by the marigold. The marigold is being deprived of sunlight by the mango tree. In such a situation the gardener has to connect with both the mango and marigold consciousness and then take a view that is beneficial for both. He would be justified in uprooting either the mango or the marigold as long as his intention was to create a beautiful garden.

Just as the forward player in the football team uses his forwardness or diversity to win the match for the team; similarly all cultures should develop their particular cultures with the objective of securing unity of all humankind. If we feel western culture is not giving adequate space to local cultures, the solution is transformation of western culture. The solution is not to protect local cultures and deny unity of mankind.

The author is former Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.