MULTICULTURALISM WITHIN THE POSTCOLONIAL AND POSTCOMMUNIST FRAMEWORKS. THE CASES OF INDIA AND ROMANIA
MULTICULTURALISM WITHIN THE POSTCOLONIAL AND POSTCOMMUNIST FRAMEWORKS. THE CASES OF INDIA AND ROMANIA

Summary/Abstract: Since its beginnings in the 1970’s to the proclamation of its death in 2010-2011 by the most important European leaders of the time (Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron) to its present day reinterpretation due to increasing migration and globalization, multiculturalism has been on the agenda of policy makers worldwide. And rightly so, as a liberal multicultural society, at least in theory, “cherishes the diversity of and encourages a creative dialogue between its different cultures and their moral visions.“ (Lord Bhikhu Parekh, What is Multiculturalism?). This is indeed the desired (some would say utopian) perspective, but how successfully has it been implemented? As far back as 2007 Will Kymlicka was challenging his readers with two possible options: either to abandon the project of internationalizing multiculturalism (highly undesirable, in his opinion) or to rethink it and put it on a more coherent footing of liberal multiculturalism (Multicultural Odysseys). In this paper I address multiculturalism in the postcommunist and postcolonial contexts and explore possible points of intersection between the two. If, as I have shown elsewhere, the postcommunist condition is (to a certain extent) part of the postcolonial framework, I am seeking to find out whether their approaches towards multiculturalism are similar. The case studies analyzed are Romania and India and the respective states’ policies towards ‘nation’, as well as their relations with the minorities living on their present day territories. With different historical, political, ideological and geographical backgrounds, the two countries are taken as illustrations to test the validity of liberal multiculturalism and its theoretical and practical potential.

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