In Conversation: Are Diversity and Inclusion being Compromised in a Globalized World?

 

In a free-wheeling chat with Population First, Shajahan Madampat explores various dimensions of diversity and its role in creating sustainable and inclusive communities and nations. Shajahan is an Indian writer, critic, and social commentator based in the Middle East who writes on issues related to culture, media, and Middle East affairs in several leading publications including The Outlook Magazine, Gulf News, and Malayalam weekly magazines Kalakaumudi, and Mathrubhumi.

All the views expressed here are the views of Shajahan Madampat and should not be attributed to Population First.

There has been a tremendous focus on promoting cultural diversity over the past few years. What would you say is Cultural Diversity? 

I think cultural diversity is the equivalent of biodiversity in terms of people's belief systems, lifestyles, languages, literature, so on and so forth. So, if we start on that premise, perhaps it will be easier for us to develop a perspective on this because people have a better understanding of biodiversity. When we talk about culture and diversity, we are talking about essentially various modes and ways of living, in terms of languages, lifestyles, sartorial practices, religions and traditions. 

And this kind of celebration of diversity is one of the noblest democratic traditions. One can say that it is only when you have a secular democracy, diversity will be promoted, celebrated, and accepted. Secularism is the only political system, and culture, that allows unfettered freedom of expression, and lifestyles, so long as it doesn't violate some of the universal principles.  Diversity is a fact. Pluralism is what we make out of it

How has globalization affected cultural diversity, if at all?

When look at 10,000 years ago, the world was blessed with far more biodiversity than we have today. And in the next few decades, we will see a lot of species that will go extinct. The same is true of cultural diversity. If we look back a little before the advent of modernity, we would realize that the world was a much better place in terms of cultural diversity.

In fact, I must mention a beautiful essay by historian Shahid Amin titled  Post-colonial Towns Called Deoria. His point was that in his growing years if you travel 10 km, the kasbah or the town was totally different from the town that you just left behind. With the advent of globalization, what has happened is all towns have become similar. You have a MacDonald, you have a Pizza Hut, you have the same smell. People walk the same way, talk the same way. 

I grew up in the interiors of Malappuram district in Malabar in Kerala, and from the way somebody talks to me, I could say from which part of the district is he from.  Even now it hasn't completely vanished. But, with the strengthening of written culture, they all start speaking some kind of a standard language. I mean, we say in Kerala that Malayalam Manorama has killed the linguistic diversity in Kerala. 

The world after the advent of modernity in general and globalization in particular has been moving in the direction of some kind of homogenization in terms of language, culture, sartorial practices, body language. 

I recently came across a study that said that almost 70 or 75%, of the existing languages in the world would soon become extinct. So, languages are dying, distinctive cultural practices are dying. And then sometimes we turn all of them into demonstrable things. On a particular day, you will wear certain clothes e.g., a Diwali or Eid, or whatever. So that kind of shift away from wide or myriad ways of living into an easily definable kind of cultural appearance. That is what is happening now.

How important is Cultural Diversity in nation/ society building?

I was born and brought up in a very conservative Malabar Muslim family. The first time I celebrated anything other than Eid was when I was 16 and had the Onam feast at a Hindu friend’s place. And then, I started getting exposure to the rich diversity of Kerala because I had never travelled outside until that point. Then. I come to the JNU. And first, it was a cultural shock. Then it was a cultural feast. A Malayali Muslim with absolutely no exposure to the rest of the world, except through all the world classics, which I had read as Malayalam translations. So suddenly I am getting to know India. Nehru’s beautiful title always reverberates in my head, The Discovery Of India, as you interact with people from West Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka, northeast U.P., Bihar, Delhi, and Haryana. You slowly begin to understand how great we are as a diverse nation. Different ways of living. Different ways of eating. Different ways of talking. It was really a true microcosm and because of the kind of progressive admission policy, all strata of Indian society were represented in large numbers on campus because you have people coming from big urban cities and you also had people coming from remote rural India. And for me, that was the most beautiful experience. So cultural diversity is one of the most important things. That needs to be preserved almost as important as biodiversity.

How important is cultural diversity for sustainable development?

In the famous speech by Chief Seattle, the tribal leader belonging to the red Indian community, lies the answer. So, here are white people coming and occupying lands, either by force or offering to buy their land. Chief Seattle, addressing them speaks about how the land, the Earth, the sky, the trees, the animals, and the birds, all are an inalienable, organic part of  existence, and that land is not just a commodity, it is where the ancestors still continue to communicate with its people. Most of the traditional cultures across the world, for centuries, for millennia, lived in close harmony with nature. Through their life practices, they sustained life on Earth, they sustained Mother Earth, right?  In fact, the so-called modern world has a lot to learn from the sustainability practices of various non-modern cultures.

In the name of sustainable development, basically, there is an attempt at imposing the same approach on everybody, and it doesn't work that way. In fact, the way one community deals with sustainability may be totally different from the way the other communities deal with it. So again, the point is, sustainable development also has to include diversity. World Bank or IMF imposes the same set of activities and practices on so many different countries and cultures. It's not sustainable at all.

Many cultures reinforce and promote gender inequalities and injustice. How do we promote cultural diversity while addressing gender issues?

In various religious communities, traditional communities, families, etc. many regressive religious practices are sustained in the name of cultural authenticity and cultural preservation. Because within each culture, we have an elite, with vested interests. So, the men in a particular culture would like to ensure their supremacy over the women. Therefore, while celebrating cultural diversity, we also need to confront and eradicate many of the harmful practices that still exist. 

It is important to look at culture as a dynamic and vibrant entity, something that is changing all the time, adopting new things from outside, giving up some of the baggage of the past. All studies of different cultures around the world point to the truth of this.  No culture has been static. So, when we look at it from that perspective, we realize that a lot of internal criticism is important within each culture, within each community, because so many practices are sustained and preserved in the name of cultural identity and authenticity. They need to be confronted.