KARACHI, March 29: While India is one of the most centralised federal states in the world, the weakness of Indian federalism is strengthened by its democracy, given the continuous constitutional dominance and a parliament that reflects society, said Dr Jaffar Ahmad, the director of Pakistan Study Centre at the University of Karachi, while speaking at a workshop held on the campus on Thursday.

The workshop on ‘The rise of ethno-nationalistic politics around the world with focus on Europe and South Asia’ was organised by the Area Study Centre for Europe (ASCE) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad, and was presided over by retired Lt Gen Moinuddin Haider.

Speaking on the topic of multi-cultural and religious diversity in India and the nature of its federation and democracy, Dr Ahmad said India was a highly diverse country with 28 states, seven union territories and a national capital territory.

“The bureaucracy is very powerful in India and the state bureaucratic systems are highly integrated,” he said. Although there was a disconnection between the claims of the level of secularism in India and reality, whatever had been there was useful, he added.

He said that strong political parties with a vision had played an important role in providing unity. One-party rule was useful in the initial stages of the democratic process, he said.

He concluded by saying that commissions in India were elected and provided food for thought. He remarked: “Can we imagine our own higher education commission as being an elected body?”

Earlier, Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, the dean of the faculty of contemporary studies at the National Defence University, provided an academic framework for ethno-nationalism.

He laid out etymological origins and defined ethno-nations as people who share common ancestry, values, language and culture as well as have a sense of belonging. He nevertheless added that due to globalisation, nation states did not exist in their traditional form.

He gave the following countries as examples of the various stakes in ethnic tensions: Kyrgyzstan (major ethnic rise in the city of Osh in 2010 causing Uzbek minorities to join militant groups), Sri Lanka (importance of territorial concentration in ethnic tensions), Pakistan (difference between nationalists who want more autonomy for their provinces as opposed to those demanding an independent state) and Nigeria (exploitation of ethnic sentiment for economic and political gain by the elite).

He added that Nigeria and Sri Lanka had descended into a civil war, but in other regions different arrangements had been reached as in the case of Cyprus and former Czechoslovakia that were partitioned.

Dr Cheema concluded by giving the example of the diaspora as being an ethnic minority group that had no claims to self-determination and was in a setting where communities lived side by side.

In his opening statement, ASCE Director Dr Moonis Ahmar said that Europe had been divided into nation states with the treaty of Westphalia and that the continent had a great deal of experience of ethno-nationalism given its cultural and linguistic diversity.

“But it has been able to use this multi-culturism as a positive force,” he said.

In the context of the subcontinent, he said that previously it were the powers of nationalism that forced the British to leave but currently ethno-nationalism was considered a threat to national security.

Dr Ahmar concluded his statement by saying that he thought regionalism — and not nationalism — was the real problem and asked whether there could be any process of enlightenment in the subcontinent.

Regarding ethno-nationalistic dynamics in Europe, senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin said that Europe was an example of how old enemies could become good friends and prosper in the process.

He reiterated the democratic peace theory of international relations based on the premise that democratic countries do not go to war with one another.

Europe had been able to tackle the challenges of ethno-nationalism and had become the strongest magnet for immigrants, he said.

He illustrated Europe’s ethnic tensions with the examples of the Basque separatists in Spain.

He also said that economic growth did not get rid of nationalism as could be seen in the examples of Flanders, Catalonia, and northern Italy.

“However each of these is committed to the idea of a European community,” he said.

The final speaker of the event was Mehreen Humayun, lecturer at the general history department of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, who tackled the subject of the trans-national institution in Europe and the rising wave of nationalism.

She said that Nato was a trans-national organisation that helped integrate Europe during a time of inflation and recession.

“It was the combination of integrating around strong economic ties and doing away with nationalism that led to a prosperous Europe,” she said.

Integration of the continent started out with the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, which became the European Economic Community in 1958, she said, adding that eventually the latter merged with sister organisations in 1967 forming the European Communities, which was the precursor of the European Union established in 1991.

She also highlighted how nationalist and extremist parties in Europe were playing the xenophobic card to affect government decision making.