Minorities and the Making of Postcolonial States in International Law (original) (raw)
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The strong presence of ethno-nationalism in postcolonial states, and the associated politics, has often translated into the oppression of minorities and the denial to them of the right to self-determination. It has led to internal conflicts and gross violation of human rights, even genocide. Yet few scholars have addressed the matter in depth from an international law perspective. Mohammad Shahabuddin is an honourable exception. He has now written a timely, theoretically informed, and empirically grounded book on the subject of ethno-nationalism, postcolonial states, and international law. It continues the pathbreaking work Shahabuddin began with his previous monograph Ethnicity and International Law (2016). His work deserves to be read by anyone interested in the fate of minorities and subaltern groups in postcolonial states. His theoretical framework is rich, albeit eclectic. He draws insights from liberalism, Marxism, and feminism. He weaves an analysis that relates the problem of ethno-nationalism to continuance of colonial boundaries, particular trajectories of development, the role of ethnic bourgeoisies, the nature and character of the postcolonial state, and the place of minority rights in the constitutional scheme of things. His deconstruction of the 'ideology' of ethno-nationalism and the postcolonial state draws from among others the 'critical hermeneutics' of John Thompson. In so far as the world of international law is concerned he relies on different strands of critical scholarship that include third world approaches to international law (TWAIL), feminist approaches to international law (FtAIL), and new approaches to international law (NAIL). His essential argument, made by all these three approaches in one form or another, is that international law is part of the problem. The embrace of critical theory allows him to depart from existing work on minorities which essentially adopt a human rights perspective and identify in its matrix the shortcomings in the normative and institutional framework on minority rights. This strand of scholarship usually calls for more effective implementation, and at times a binding treaty to replace xi
The post-WWII phase of international law was indeed set for reaffirming faith in certain crucial values: fundamental human rights, dignity and worth of individuals, equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, among others. In this new era, however, progression equated to liberal values, and universalism simply meant the expansion of these values at a global scale. This ideological shift towards liberalism was soon reflected on the periphery with the emergence of new States in Africa and Asia which demonstrated preoccupation with nation-building, and as a consequence, with assimilationist projects. Against the backdrop of the right to self-determination and with the case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, this paper argues the manner in which the liberal West portrays ethnicity as primitiveness has deeply rooted implications for the way in which this image of ethnicity is then projected on the 'global other' – the periphery – wherein the process of constructing the nationhood in light of the liberal world view engenders detrimental consequences for minorities – the 'local other' within a given polity.
Minorities and their nationalism(s): the terms of a discourse in South Asia
South Asian History and Culture, 2012
South Asia is the theatre of myriad experimentations with the doctrine of nationalism: religious, linguistic, religio-linguistic, composite, plural or exclusive – the region stands witness to all. However, officially promulgated nationalism, presented as the finality of one's affiliations and loyalties, comes to be fiercely contested by minority groups resolute on preserving what they see as the pristine purity of their
Why scholars of minority rights in Asia should recognize the limits of Western models
2011
"This article considers the relationship between ethnic and racial minority rights and citizenship in Asia. The most ethnically divided and populous region in the world, Asia is home to some of the most contrasting state responses to ethnic minority assertions of diversity and difference. Asia is also awash with wide-ranging claims by geographically-dispersed ethnic minorities to full and equal citizenship. In exploring the relationship between ethnic minority rights claims and citizenship in Asia, this article considers the relevance of certain core assumptions in Western-dominated citizenship theory to Asian experiences. The aim is to look beyond absolutist West-East and civic-ethnic bifurcations to consider more constructive questions about what Asian and Western models might learn from one another in approaching minority citizenship issues."
This paper discusses the international legal dimension to Kymlicka's theory of ethnocultural diversity and the prospects for achieving consensus on a stronger set of justice-based international norms on minority rights. Besides addressing specific human rights issues on their own terms, the author argues that the impact of Western experiences in addressing minority questions, while of considerable importance to locally-generated minority protection strategies in the East, may prove more limited in generating a credible set of generally-binding regimes rooted in considerations of justice than is expected. Minority rights standards, it is contended, have so far been perceived – by both East and West – primarily as security tools. This raises not only the problem of how best to strengthen minority rights as part of human rights law, but also the need to clarify the ultimate vision of minority rights law itself.
Introduction. Ethnic minorities in Asia: Inclusion or Exclusion?
Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol.35, no.4, 2011
This special issue, devoted to ethnic minorities in Asia, originated with the International Symposium on Ethnic Minorities in Asia: Subjects or Citizens, held at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. As one of the most ethnically-diverse regions in the world, Asia is the site of large indigenous minority populations as well as non-indigenous minorities through ever-growing legal and illegal migrant flows. This article maps out some of the key themes explored by the contributors to this special issue in the processes and structures of accommodation for Asia’s minorities. These themes revolve around the changing meaning of citizenship in Asian contexts, state models of accommodation, constructions and representations of identity and belonging, post-colonial legacies and nation-building, the legitimacy of minority rights claims, and questions of human security. This article provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical contributions that the essays in this special issue bring to the study of ethnic minority issues in increasingly heterogeneous and divided Asian societies.
Development, Ethnicity and Human Rights in South Asia
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1999
Aimed at academics studying human rights and South Asian studies, this book focuses on the problems of securing minority rights in societies which are characterized by inegalitarian cultural values which encompass economic discrimination.
The UN Declaration on Minorities and its Guidance: A View from South Asia (with Joshua Castellino)
Rainer Hofmann & Ugo Caruso (eds.) The United Nations Declaration on Minorities: An Academic Account on the Occasion of its 20th Anniversary (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, forthcoming)
The chapter provides a background on the situation of minority groups within the States in South Asia, the contestations attendant to understanding conceptions of ‘minorities’ and explanations of the peculiarities that characterize minority protection in the region. It then analyses the extent to which the text and commentary of the Declaration tackle these issues and the areas of challenge that remain to be overcome.
The State, Minorities and the Dynamics of Multiculturalism in the Developing World
1. Background The twenty-first century world is a place of extreme complication when one tries to understand the issue of peace and well-being of the human race. Does peaceful living simply mean the absence of war or does it go beyond to articulate a situation where harmony defines every step, taken to make way for a better living? Political scientists and philosophers have been abound with ideas and theories to understand as well as explain the dynamics of peaceful coexistence and harmonious living. One of the outcomes of such efforts was the formulation of a strategy for accommodating multiple cultural entities in the confines of a single state. This was the policy of 'multiculturalism'. The concept of multiculturalism originated in the modern first world societies and came to be applied in the context of post-colonial societies later on. As a body of thought in political philosophy, multiculturalism seeks to prescribe the proper way to respond to cultural and religious diversities, which eventually brings in the question of minority and majority cultures. Its importance lies in the fact that multiculturalism nurtures the practise of putting noticeable emphasis on, what can be called the " group-differentiated rights, " a term coined by Will Kymlicka. This does not merely stop at tolerating group differences but also recognizes as well as positively accommodates such differences to treat the members of minority groups as equal citizens. I propose to analyse the background, content and implications of the concept of multiculturalism through my study in the context of the developing world which precisely refers to those regions which have been in the throes of colonial bondage for a century or two till the middle of nineteenth century. The specific reason for taking up the context of the developing world is that this was the part of the world which has always been understood to have experienced unique forms of state formation throughout the ages in history and yet, at the turn of the twentieth century, it is this very region which turned to be the imperfect replicas of the 'Mother States' of the colonial masters. 2. Multinational, Multi-ethnic and Multicultural 2.1. Multinational versus Multi-ethnic T. K. Oommen makes a distinction between 'multinational' and 'multi-ethnic' states, both of which, according to him, pertain to the definition of multiculturalism but are dissimilar r in nature. In case of a multinational state, dissidence can come in the form of Abstract: The idea of multiculturalism emerged in the wake of the 1970s, in the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The circumstance was the incorporation and harmonious co-habitation of multiple cultural groups within these states. By and large, the groups with diverse cultural origins owed their presence to transmigration undertaken during the colonial as also the post-colonial times, in those countries where the movements began. To state precisely, multiculturalism as an approach, was advanced in particular, to deal with the problems of marginalization of a certain group or groups, for that matter, by recognizing that every culture, in actuality was inherently plural in nature. This implied that cultures never grew in isolation but in conjunction with the other cultures, with absolutely different traditions and customs, which meant that, the identity of one culture got defined in contrast to the 'significant other'. This in turn, sought to inculcate a sense of belonging among the divergent identity-groups with the recognition of 'group-differentiated' rights that would confer equal status to one and all. However, given that each state has its own history and dynamics of growth and development and this got reflected respectively on the policies and their implementation as well as the outcomes. The success or the failure of the very concept itself was hinged on the nature of the state machinery and hence, the relevance of the idea itself lends itself to the nature of the state.