Most Threatening Conflict Between Hindus And Muslims example essay topic

India is the center of a very serious problem in the world today. It's a very diverse place with people from many different religious backgrounds, who speak many different languages and come from many different regions. They are also separated economically. Two of the country's religious sects, Muslims and Hindus, have been in conflict for hundreds of years.

Their feelings of mistrust and hatred for each other are embedded in all those years and will not leave easily. What's most disturbing is that there seems to be no plan for reconciliation available. There are numerous reasons for this conflict. Power struggles amongst the two groups are ever present and each group thinks the other is out to get them. Hindus comprise the majority of the population of India at eighty percent while Muslims are a minority, making up only fourteen percent, which is a problem in itself.

The feeling of being dominated by the majority comes from being a part of the minority. To complicate things even more is the controversy that surrounds Ayodhya, a holy place in Gujarat claimed by both groups. The Babri Masjid, a Muslim temple in Ayodhya was burned to the ground by Hindu extremists in 1992 and caused a wave of violence that resulted in the loss of over two thousand lives. These Hindu extremists believe the temple rests on the birthplace of Ram, one of the Hinduism's most revered deities. They want a temple built on the site to commemorate Ram's birth. Muslims in turn want the Babri Masjid rebuilt in the same spot.

Neither side wants to give in and are currently fighting on. The most threatening conflict between Hindus and Muslims is the province of Kashmir. This is where the decision to divide India into India and Pakistan seems to have been a terrible mistake. Kashmir, which is the only Muslim majority city in India, lies between the divided India and Pakistan. After India's independence in the 1940's, Kashmir had to choose to either unite with India or Pakistan. The Prince of Kashmir chose India but Pakistan invaded the province soon after and have occupied part of Kashmir since then.

Controversy still surrounds the province today because naturally, Muslims want to control it. While many Muslims relocated to Pakistan and the Hindus to India, half of the Muslim population was left in India and their relations did not improve after being partially separated. The two groups continued to use direct violence against each other as they had in the past. In the most recent uproar, men, women, and children were burned to death by both faiths and the death toll was at eight hundred and three people as of April 1st.

Controversy also surrounds Hindu nationalists who want to unify India and Muslim Fundamentalists who want to keep it separate. The Hindu nationalists currently control India. Muslims in India are socially excluded and complain of educational and economic discrimination. Although they make up fourteen percent of the population of India, less than two percent of their children make up the school population. They are poorly represented in the government and cannot get good professional jobs in the armed and police forces. Poverty rates are improving but still remain very skewed.

In other words, there is a very wide gap between rich and poor. India is also vastly overpopulated causing the people to crowd into cities and sprawl all over the countryside. This only adds heat to a fire that is already scorching hot. With Muslims and Hindus being so close together, it's not hard for hatred to stir and fighting to begin. Lastly, with the Muslim majority being in Pakistan and the Hindus in India, both have nuclear weapons and are only a few minutes apart. Their conflict is frightening for the whole world.

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia had the sanity to think about what they could do to each other and the sense to stop. Muslims and Hindus are beyond that. If the conflict doesn't cease, their hatred for one another will undoubtedly result in nuclear war, as they have been known to die for what they believe in. There are social-psychological theories that can help explain why relations between Hindus and Muslims are so torn. First, there is the Fundamental Attribution Error that is talked about in Aronson's book as well as in Peace, Conflict, and Violence.

People tend to attribute their own behavior to situational factors but attribute others' behavior to their personalities or their dispositions. For example, when Muslims slaughter a cow for sacrifice or food, it is viewed in the Hindus eyes as immoral and the way Muslims behave, but when Hindus cover their temple walls with naked gods and goddesses they feel it is right because it's their religion. It is in turn provoking in the Muslims eyes and seen as immoral. In this sense, when the two groups lash out at each other they feel that they " re acting on their religious duties and fighting for what they believe is right.

Also, according to Folger's referent cognition's model, which is a version of the relative deprivation theory, individuals compare actual social comparison outcomes between groups (perhaps in terms of money or power) with other possible alternatives. The outcomes that individuals perceive as more positive than they really are may lead to resentment and most likely intrastate conflict, as is the case with Hindus and Muslims. For example, when a Muslim and a Hindu compete for the same job and the Hindu seals the position, the Muslim will most likely think that he did not get the job because Hindus have a socio-economic advantage over Muslims. He will not take into consideration that the Hindu may have been more qualified for the position. Also, with Hindus dominating the population, Muslims look at them as a group and get the perception that they have power over them. They feel threatened and underrepresented.

Both of these situations produce animosity and cause conflict. Moral exclusion also plays a big role in Hindu-Muslim conflict situations and results in direct and structural violence. Morals are what people see as right, just, and respectable. They are the norms that guide the individual. Moral values are deeply rooted in culture and upbringing. According to Peace, Conflict, and Violence, we see other kinds of people such as enemies or strangers outside our moral community; they are morally excluded.

The views and well being of people outside one's moral community don't matter to them. Since one's moral community is identified by their religion or ethnicity, among other things, it poses a problem for Muslims and Hindus. They both come from different religious backgrounds and don't see eye to eye. They will automatically resent each other because they have different values and don't agree with one another's beliefs.

Aronson's definition of in-group favoritism is directly related to moral exclusion and provides another way to understand why Hindu-Muslim relations are so bad. It states that there are positive feelings and special treatment for people we have defined as being part of our in-group and negative feelings and unfair treatment for others simply because we have defined them as being in the out-group. The definition literally speaks for itself and describes the two groups relationship perfectly. Muslims identify with fellow Muslims because they have similar thoughts and views, as do Hindus and their coreligionists. They treat each other biased because they tend to be in favor of their group only.

Lastly, people in conflict use zero-sum thinking. They think that gains for one mean losses for the other. This perception can generate negative attitudes, bias, hostility and cause controversy. This is seen in the conflict between Muslims and Hindus concerning the city of Kashmir. Even though Muslims had received Pakistan as their own secular state; they thought the Hindus had gained more when Kashmir cho.