INDIAN MODEL OF MANAGING ETHNO-TERRITORIAL HETEROGENEITY: ASYMMETRICAL ETHNIC FEDERALISM, INSTITUTIONAL ISOMORPHISM AND PATH DEPENDENCY

Abstract

The task of managing political-territorial diversity is of great importance in contemporary world due to territorial heterogeneity, primarily ethnic heterogeneity, of the states is increasingly politicized, giving rise to movements for self-determination, risks of separatism and a threat to the territorial integrity of the state. The experience of countries such as India, where a large number of self-determination movements can be found, and a specific model for managing ethno-territorial heterogeneity has emerged, is of particular interest. India has adopted an asymmetrical ethnic federalism, and the trajectory of reforms directed to accommodate the demands of multiple ethnic movements for self-determination tends to be reactive. At the same time, a definite set of institutional solutions has developed in India, so that both the demands of self-determination movements and the ongoing reforms accord to normative/imitative isomorphism. A comparative review of the influence of the Indian model on the accommodation of demands of more than 30 ethnic self-determination movements, carried out on the basis of such parameters as the specificity of the respective ethnic group, the nature of the demands, as well as institutional reforms, allows us to conclude that the effects of the Indian model are ambiguous. In some cases, conflicts have been resolved, but in others they continue, escalate, and sometimes even multiply, as concessions and reforms incite new demands and escalate new movements. The “path dependency” is clearly exposed here: once you take the path of asymmetrical ethnic federalism, it is incredibly difficult to turn away from this path. As regards individual self-determination movements, the effectiveness of reforms is determined not so much by their content as by the context in which they are carried out.

Keywords:

ethnicity, heterogeneity, federalism, asymmetry, self-determination movement, reforms