Revision summary
Federal success of language states encourages new ethnic claims. Extractive development in tribal and hill regions fuels resurgence. Census and schedules make identity an official resource. Party competition after one-party dominance opened space. Land and dignity, not primordial hate, are the usual motors.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Ethnic identity movements resurged in India because the republic both recognises difference and maldistributes development. Language, tribe, and region return as claims when the nation feels distant or extractive.
Body
Structural factors
- Linguistic federalism taught that identity pays in states and councils. New claims copy that success.
- Uneven development, mines, and dams in tribal belts turn ethnicity into a shield, after colonial isolation and Ghurye–Elwin unfinished business.
- Census, Sixth Schedule, and reservation make ethnicity a file identity that leaders can mobilise, as Paul Brass argued.
Political opportunity
- Party competition after Congress dominance opened space for regional and tribal fronts.
- Global indigenous talk and diaspora media thicken symbols, but local land is still the core.
Cultural factors
- Fear of assimilation and of majoritarianism recasts tribe and language as peoplehood.
- Middle-class ethnic intelligentsias write history and demand a flag or an autonomous council.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD FED[Federal recognition] --> MOV[Ethnic movements] DEV[Uneven mines dams] --> MOV PAR[Party opportunity] --> MOV
Conclusion
Resurgence is not a return of the primitive. It is modern politics using ethnicity where class and nation have not delivered dignity or land.
Quick related
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Is this secessionism?
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Did globalisation cause it?
It added symbols. The material cause is still local development and recognition.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2015 · Q6(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
What are the major concerns of ethnic identity and religious identity in India?
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