Conflict Resolution
India is a diverse country in terms of religion. The Hindu population constitutes 828 million people (80%), the Muslim population constitutes million (13.5%), the Christian population constitutes 24 million (2.5%), the Sikh population constitutes 19 million (2%), while other religious groupings including Jains and Buddhists constitute 19.5 million. Religion is an important aspect of Indian political scene. Although India maintains that it is a secular nation, Indian politics has had a deep religious flavor at all times. This has resulted in religion being an important component of the identity of many Indians. There are many cases of religious identity being elicited in response to the communalism politics. Communalism connotes the functioning of organizations or religious communities, or the bodies which state they represent them, in a manner which is prejudices to the nation as a whole or interests of other groups. Historical evidence shows that communalism in the Republic of India arose as a result of the partisan imperialist forces' politics. For example, the available literature shows that communal identity amongst the Sikhs developed towards the end of the seventeenth century owing to their struggles throughout the Mogul rule in the Republic of India. In India's colonial times, the British made separate electorates for disparate religious communities. By doing so, they managed to effectively engineer the Muslim-Hindu divide in the nationalist movement. Ultimately, this contributed to the partition of India (Dalal, 2006).
This essay comparatively analyzes conflict style preferences in India. It concentrates particularly on the differences between the key religious groups in the country. The major history of India has been greatly influenced by both ethnic and religious conflict. Nonetheless, some communication-based study has resulted in a deeper understanding of the impact such a history has had on present-day India. As some scholars articulate in their works, most of the conflict communication studies center on Eastern or Western Asian geographic settings, with other places of the world being unexplored. This research is one of several endeavors to understand and look at the conflict style preferences linked to the two major religious groups in India (Muslims and Hindus). Some contributors of literature maintain that culture offers the context under which we are able to understand how and why conflict exists. In addition, culture can be of major influence on the success of communication in a conflict context. In a nation sharply divided along religious and political differences, knowledge pertaining what conflict styles are there and the factors linked to those preferences is of paramount importance (Dalal, 2006).
A discussion of the manner in which two specific and currently existing (contemporary) cultures approach the topic
In general, it is considered that India is a collectivistic, high-context nation. Nonetheless, besides the above cultural parameters that are conventionally examined in intercultural communication, it is also possible for religion to have an influence on conflict styles. In India, two major religions exist: Hinduism and Islam. Both have significant effects on Indian politics and culture. This includes conflicts that occur all over the country. Some researchers have indicated that religion in India has a tendency to play a leading role in conflict. This has also been influenced by the latest trends towards fundamentalism. In an article on interreligious/interfaith peace creating efforts, attention is drawn attention to the roles - both destructive and positive - that religion has in conflict. Thus, it is necessary to understand if there are wide trends between Hindus and Muslims populating India (Avruch, 2003).
The Muslim world has gotten better attention when a macro level analysis is conducted through conflict and peace studies. However, it has not been studied enough in conflict style research. As a result, Muslims across the globe have been considered collectivistic and established on the contrary to the Western civilization. Major studies assert that productive conflict resolution necessitates attending to the "Attitudes, beliefs, history and customs" within Islamic culture that act as important models for conflict transformation. Nonetheless, Muslims and Islam are considered "others." Moreover, the Muslim world is regarded as one-dimensional (for instance, every Muslim is labeled "Arab" even though it is just a very small Muslims minority who are Arab). Not much has been done to create distinctions between the numerous cultural and geographic differences that are there in the Islam world. Muslims throughout many locations have been exposed to colonization a good number of times, which has created experiences specific to such contexts in which people have to react. Every disparate subculture to which Muslims belong has its own traditions and values. These form distinct interpretations of the...
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