Ethnicity is on no account a new concept in the international politics. To be very precise, it has been one of the decisive factors that have played great roles in shaping the destiny of a nation, at best in the post-World War II period. If we go to the recent history we will come across several instances, especially in the Middle East, where the saga of ethnicity did play a great role. Even in the Indo-Pak war of 1971 leading to the formation of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation this notion along with language did play a commendable part. On the other hand, indeed for a long time, this very concept was regarded as the sole domain of sociologists, where as on studies on International Relations and intra-regional developments it received little attention.
Now how did this very concept appear in the center stage? In this respect, it must be stated that the imperialistic design of Bismarck and the nationalist fervor of Garibaldi changed the map of Europe in the 19th century to a great extent. Again, the then formed European States being mono-national ones, did not witness any such preponderance of one particular ethnic group. However, this solidarity of ages did suffer a jolt after the end of the World War II. The end of the war witnessed the independent emergence of a number of multinational multiethnic nations. This brought for the first time in the recent history the subject of ethnicity that has assumed a scholarly significance in the succeeding years. In all these years a number of post-colonial states have faced the problem of ethnicity in one form or the other. There are also examples when the ethnic assertion has led to the eruption of violent clashes, extensive riots and also ethnic cleansing plaguing the civilian life and the composite culture totally. The end of the Cold War and also the disintegration of Soviet Union has given a fillip to the violent reassertion of the ethnic movements and also to the unsolved crisis in a new manner.
Now how did this very concept appear in the center stage? In this respect, it must be stated that the imperialistic design of Bismarck and the nationalist fervor of Garibaldi changed the map of Europe in the 19th century to a great extent. Again, the then formed European States being mono-national ones, did not witness any such preponderance of one particular ethnic group. However, this solidarity of ages did suffer a jolt after the end of the World War II. The end of the war witnessed the independent emergence of a number of multinational multiethnic nations. This brought for the first time in the recent history the subject of ethnicity that has assumed a scholarly significance in the succeeding years. In all these years a number of post-colonial states have faced the problem of ethnicity in one form or the other. There are also examples when the ethnic assertion has led to the eruption of violent clashes, extensive riots and also ethnic cleansing plaguing the civilian life and the composite culture totally. The end of the Cold War and also the disintegration of Soviet Union has given a fillip to the violent reassertion of the ethnic movements and also to the unsolved crisis in a new manner.
- Other history articles
1
