Abstract
‘Governance’ and ‘peace’ are interpenetrating concepts. Situated “at the axis of peace-building and state-building” (UNDP 2012, 38), efficient governance can enhance peaceful cohabitation, and an environment of peace, in turn, facilitates governance. Both governance and peace, though, are, in Walter Gallie’s sense, ‘essentially contested concepts’, which renders an analysis of their relationship difficult. Governance, to give a minimalist, and at the same time maximalist definition, is ‘orderly rule’ (Mitra 2006, 1). It is a liminal category whose origin and existence are closely linked to both self-interest and embedded values (Mitra 2006, 26). Following from that, orderly rule is critically conditional on the ability of modern institutions to accommodate embedded values, undertake strategic reform and maintain the difficult balance between force and persuasion in the management of law and order (Mitra 2006, 26–27). Such orderly rule can promote a cohesive society characterized by internal peace.
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Notes
- 1.
Gallie (1956) coined the term ‘essentially contested concept’ to refer to socio-political and philosophical ideas that have a variety of meanings, and hence are impossible to be conclusively defined. Gallie notes that “to use an essentially contested concept means to use it against other uses and to recognize that one’s own use of it has to be maintained against these other uses” (Gallie 1956, 172).
- 2.
Sarvodaya literally means the welfare of all, understood as social uplift. For details see Gandhi (1954).
- 3.
With regard to the numbers of native speakers, the 2001 Census lists Hindi with 422 million people (41 % of the population) as the by far most widely spoken language of India, followed by Bengali with 83 million speakers (8.1 %) and the South Indian language of Telugu with 74 million speakers (7 %). This makes India the most linguistically diverse country in the world on the basis of two counts: First, by virtue of the number of constitutionally-recognized (and most of them de facto regional) languages, second by the relative size of the languages among the population compared to the size of Hindi (Breton 1997, 161).
- 4.
In his analysis, Subrata K. Mitra refers to the logic of federalism and to consociational forms of power-sharing as crucial institutional arrangements to promote governance (Mitra 2006, 19).
- 5.
In the same vein, Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph use the metaphor of the ‘avatars of Vishnu’ to describe the non-linearity and context-dependency of governance in India, and its positive effects on national cohesion: “Like Hindu conceptions of the divine, the state in India is polymorphous, a creature of manifold forms and orientations. One is the third actor whose scale and power contribute to the marginality of class politics. Another is a liberal or citizens’ state, a juridicial body whose legislative reach is limited by a written constitution, judicial review, and fundamental rights. Still another is a capitalist state that guards the boundaries of the mixed economy by protecting the rights and promoting the interests of property in agriculture, commerce, and industry. Finally, a socialist state is concerned to use public power to eradicate poverty and privilege and tame private power. Which combination prevails in a particular historical setting is a matter for inquiry” (Rudolph and Rudolph 1987, 400–401).
- 6.
- 7.
Pakistan’s total population of 153 million (United Nations 2003 estimate) comprises 66 % ethnic Punjabis, 13 % Sindhis, 10.9 % Pashtuns, 2.5 % Baluchis, and 7.6 % Mohajirs. 97 % of the total population are Muslims, of which 80 % are Sunni and 20 % Shia. Christians, Hindus and members of other religions together form 3 % of the population.
- 8.
Around the time of Independence, Jinnah addressed the people of Pakistan with the words: “You have carved out a territory, a vast territory. It is all yours: it does not belong to a Punjabi or a Sindhi or a Pathan or a Bengali. It is all yours. You have got your Central Government where several units are represented. Therefore, if you want to build yourself up into a nation, for God’s sake give up this provincialism’ (cited in Cohen 2004, 205).
- 9.
Similarly, for the Indian case, Akhtar Majeed states that “there may be a lurking suspicion that political identities based on language generate forces that are a threat to national unity […]. Territorial identity may have been constitutionally recognized in order to contain regional identities within the confines of a political formula. Consequently any demand for a new state, or even any manifestation of regionalism, is suspected anti-system” (Majeed 2005b, 193). Despite occasionally-raised concerns about the disintegration of the Indian Union as an effect of the creation of new federal units, Majeed’s point seems hard to substantiate in light of the ongoing formation of States – three of them (Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh) in the year 2000 alone.
- 10.
Sri Lanka’s total population of 21.6 million (July 2013 estimate) comprises 74 % ethnic Sinhalese, 18 % Tamils, 7 % Moors, as well as Burghers, Malays and Veddas, that together account for 1 % of the population.
- 11.
In 1999, 70 % of Sri Lanka’s population was Buddhist, 15 % Hindu, 8 % Christian and 7 % Muslim. Ethnic Sinhalese are almost exclusively Buddhist, Tamils are Hindus, Moors are Muslims, and Burghers Christians. Tamils, as well as Moors are Tamil-speaking communities.
- 12.
The minority language of Tamil, on the other hand, is spoken by only about 29 % of the population (see Breton 1997, 161).
- 13.
In Pakistan this was the case in East Bengal and Sindh in the 1950s, Baluchistan in 1973 and 1988, and the NWFP in 1947 and 1973. In Sri Lanka, the state government’s refusal to implement a federal framework has led the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) to seek an independent state from the 1970s onwards.
- 14.
For the differentiation between the ‘primordial’ and the ‘instrumental’ approach to the study of subnational movements, see Mitra 1996, 2–7.
- 15.
These and other principles are laid down in Article 1 of the Charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (for complete details see www.saarcculture.org).
- 16.
The main focus of the SAARC Cultural Centre is on the material side of culture, catering to the promotion and preservation of the performing and visual arts, archaeology, literature, and folk culture, as well as to the advancement of cross-border and interfaith cultural and religious tourism. For further information see the homepage of the Cultural Centre at: www.saarcculture.org.
- 17.
This citation and all following ones related to the South Asian University can be found at www.southasianuniversity.org.
- 18.
Comparisons between SAARC and the European Union (EU) are often made, but are hardly ever justified. Mentioning the Viadrina European University at Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, which was founded in 1506, closed down in 1811, and re-established in 1991 with the aim of intensifying the German-Polish cooperation and giving an impulse for European integration, should only serve to illustrate the fact that other supra-national bodies also see the relevance of joint education for regional integration. Similarly, the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, was established in 1972 by a joint decision of six EU member states’ governments. Reflecting the expansion of the European Union, the EUI is today supported by 20 of the 28 member states. According to its convention, the aim of the institution is “to foster the advancement of learning in fields which are of particular interest for the development of Europe, especially its culture, history, law, economics and institutions” (http://www.eui.eu/Documents/AboutEUI/Convention/English.pdf). However, as of yet, there is no central European institution of higher education comparable to SAU.
- 19.
For the complete wording of the SAARC Agenda for Culture, and the quotations given here, see www.saarcculture.org.
- 20.
Personal conversation, New Delhi, 18 October 2011.
- 21.
The Working Group on the Role of the Media was chaired by the late Sayeed Najmuddin Hashim, former Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Information of Bangladesh. It endorsed the recommendations of a colloquium on the subject of ‘Media Without Walls: A South Asian Initiative’, organized jointly by the NAMEDIA foundation and the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in New Delhi in 1993. For details see Bhargava et al. 1995, 29–30 and 193–194.
- 22.
For the entire list of recommendations of the ‘Working Group on the Role of Media’, see Bhargava et al. (1995, 30–33).
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König, L. (2014). Governance for Peace: A Culturalist Approach. In: Wolf, S., Casaca, P., Flanagan, A., Rodrigues, C. (eds) The Merits of Regional Cooperation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02234-5_3
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