Clash or confluence of civilisations?

Professor Samuel P Huntington?s paradigm of the Clash of Civilizations simplifies the threat of impending cultural conflicts so convincingly that its consequences automatically call for a counter mobilisation. Many social scientists fear that Huntington?s theory is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, which causes itself to become true, if taken at face value, writes Vipul Mudgal.

The Buddha of Bamiyan that overlooked the fabled silk route in Central Afghanistan since 5th century AD, epitomized confluence of cultures. The statues blended artistic and architectural influences from India, China, Persia and Egypt. In the areas adjoining, Hinduism and Buddhism coexisted for centuries, and were later joined by Islam for another 1500 years.

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Wars and conflicts were frequent and so were desecrations and religious conversions but the civilisation blossomed on human bonds and alliances. When the Zoroastrians or the fire worshippers had to flee Iran in the eighth century, they were accommodated in South Asia without denial of religion or cultural space.

The giant images were blown up with dynamite in 2001. The Buddhas lived to tell the tales of Genghis Khan, Mahmud of Ghazni and Nadir Shah, the worst aggressors of the dark ages, but could not survive Taliban’s Mullah Omer in the age of post-modernism. The Taliban owe their creation not to the fault lines of history, as Harward Professor Samuel P Huntington would like us to believe, but to military and monitory support of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and a glad oversight of the West.

Huntington’s paradigm of the Clash of Civilizations simplifies the threat of impending cultural conflicts so convincingly that its consequences automatically call for a counter mobilisation.

Many social scientists fear that Huntington’s theory is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, which causes itself to become true, if taken at face value. The real actions taken in consequence (i.e., invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, racial profiling of immigrants etc.) provoke predictable reactions and the vicious cycle goes on.

Huntington is right that cultures really matter but he fails to connect them with politics, society and economies. Many scholars have warned that globalisation must not be seen as a declaration of war upon all non-Western cultures. Hence the rise of militant Islam is best seen in the larger perspective of the rise of militant nationalism everywhere, including in a Hindu India or in a Christian West.

Many recent surveys, notably the Pew University survey and the World Value Survey, have proved that the ordinary Muslims want democracy. The next write up examines these, and some other significant empirical studies relevant to Huntington’s theory. The peace road map at the bottom lists some areas of perpetual conflict and confrontation on which there exists a fair degree of global consensus for peace.