• Social institutions like the family and the market can bring people together, create collective identities, and strengthen social cohesion.

• The same institutions can also be sources of inequality and exclusion.

• Cultural diversity refers to the presence of many different social groups and communities within a society.

• Communities are defined by cultural markers such as language, religion, sect, race, or caste.

• Cultural diversity can create difficulties when diverse communities are part of a larger entity like a nation.

• Challenges arise because cultural identities are powerful, can arouse intense passions, and mobilise large numbers of people.

• Economic and social inequalities often accompany cultural differences, adding complexity.

• Efforts to address inequalities or injustices faced by one community can provoke opposition from other communities.

• Scarce resources like river waters, jobs, or government funds intensify conflicts and make management of diversity more difficult.

The Importance of Community Identity

• Every human needs a sense of stable identity to function in the world.

• Questions like Who am I? How am I different from others? What goals should I have? arise from childhood.

• Answers to these questions are shaped by socialisation, taught by family and community.

• Socialisation involves dialogue, negotiation, and struggle with significant others like parents, family, kin, and community.

• The community provides language (mother tongue) and cultural values that anchor self-identity.

• Community identity is based on birth and belonging, not on acquired qualifications or accomplishments.

• Such identities are called ascriptive identities, determined by birth with no choice involved.

• People often feel security and satisfaction in belonging to communities they were accidentally born into.

• Strong identification with communities occurs without passing exams or demonstrating competence, unlike professions or sports.

• Ascriptive identities are hard to shake off; even if disowned, others may continue to identify us by them.

• Emotional attachment to community identity is strong due to its unconditional and inescapable nature.

• Overlapping circles of community ties (family, kinship, caste, ethnicity, language, region, religion) give meaning and identity.

• People often react emotionally or violently when their community identity is perceived to be threatened.

• Ascriptive identities and community feeling are universal; everyone has a motherland, mother tongue, family, faith.

• Most people have potential for commitment and loyalty to their identities.

• Conflicts involving communities (nation, language, religion, caste, region) are difficult to resolve.

• Each side in a conflict tends to see the other as the enemy, exaggerating their own virtues and the other’s vices.

• In war, patriots believe God and truth are on their side, creating mirror-image perceptions of the other.