Cultural diversity: Embracing the difference

Members of the violent and rapidly expanding white supremacist Nordic Resistance Movement march through the town of Ludvika, Sweden. The United Nations' 2030 vision for "peaceful, just and inclusive societies" includes migrants. But the data from Gallup's new Migrant Acceptance Index reveals that some countries are years away from realising this vision, with low acceptance of migrants permeating all levels of society. Many countries on the front lines of the recent migrant crisis in Europe are among the least-accepting countries in the world for migrants, according to the Gallup poll. Nine of the 10 countries on the index are former Soviet bloc countries -- with most located along the Balkan route that once channeled asylum seekers from Greece to Germany.

Rohingya refugees Saddam Hussein, 23, and his wife Shofika Begum, 18, pose in a colourful tent decorated with blankets they just married in, at the Kutupalong camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The happiness of their wedding day belies the uncertainty that Saddam and Shofika feel about their future. Fleeing from Myanmar, nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh, recounting horrific stories of burned villages and killings at the hands of Myanmar’s military. Despite an outsized burden on the nation’s social safety net, Bangladesh has accepted the poverty-ridden Rohingya, building camps and providing humanitarian aid, actions that have been praised around the world.  

Europe’s top soccer teams reflect the power of multiculturalism. The cultural diversity of professional football teams in Europe has increased considerably, recruiting players regardless of their nationality. How do you get players who speak different languages to communicate with each other? In a short essay, the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini had argued that football, just like any language, is a sign system. “The minimum unit of the language of football is a podema (from the Ancient Greek meaning feet), where a podema is a kick of the ball” Pasolini inferred. “They decipher, interpret and react to one another’s podemi”. 

Beneath the abduction, rape and killing of the eight-year-old Bakkarwal girl in Kathua, is a tale of a nomadic community being gradually forced by circumstances to give up their old ways and settle down. A nomadic tribe of Islamic faith, the Bakkarwals - a subject of Gujjar ethnicity -  embark on long journeys in summer with their livestock in the high altitude regions of Kashmir and Ladakh, and return to the plains of Jammu for the winter. Impacted acutely by curtailing of traditional migration routes by militants and security forces, coupled with a wish to avail education and health facilities, forced many among the tribe to settle down around Jammu plains. Despite a shared history, the locals - Kashmiri Muslims and the Jammu Hindus - perceive Bakkarwals as outsiders, leading to an atmosphere of open hostility and confrontation that manifested in the killing. 

Young Tibetan Buddhist monks are seen at their school inside Thiksey Monastery in Ladakh, India. Their religion is in exile, a homeland reduced to a place on the map after China conquered Tibet. Many Tibetan families in India send at least one child to a monastery to learn about their own culture, language and religion.

Sociologists concur on the negative effect of globalisation on the world’s cultural diversity. Information and capital are transcending geographical boundaries with the development of technology and reshaping the relationships between the marketplace, states and citizens. With information being so easily distributed throughout the world, a homogenised ‘look’ or ‘taste’ or ‘value’ is swiftly announced as the benchmark to aspire to, globally. Take the example of increasing cultural preeminence of the United States through the widespread distribution of its products in film, television, music, clothing; or its consumer products - say, a burger or a pizza - that is virtually standardised on the planet now.

For a real multicultural difference, head to the annual Voodoo festival at Ouidah, a small town and former slave port in the West African country of Benin. It commemorates the estimated 60 million people who lost their homelands and their freedom during the African slave trade. The central belief of voodoo is that everything is spirit, including humans. Devotees offer dances to the spirits and animal sacrifices at shrines, use fetishes and enter trance states with an energy and devotion that may unsettle some. The African countries around Benin rank high on any diversity index because of their multitude of tribal groups and languages.