Discuss the impact of post-liberal economy on ethnic identity and communalism.

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

The post-liberal economy has loosened ascriptive identities through mobility and markets, but its uneven, jobless growth has made ethnic and religious identity a shield against insecurity, feeding nativism, quota agitations and communal polarisation. Haryana's 2020 law reserving 75% of private jobs for locals shows the sons-of-the-soil revival.

**Introduction**

The 1991 reforms arrived with the politics of "Mandal, Mandir and Market". The World Inequality Lab (2024) found the top 1% income share had reached 22.6% by 2022-23, and uneven growth reshaped identity.

**Post-Liberal Economy and Ethnic Identity**

SKETCH: flow | From Reforms to Identity Politics
- Uneven growth
- Job insecurity
- Identity as shield
- Quota and domicile demands
- Polarisation

1. **Sons of the soil revived**: Haryana's 2020 law reserving 75% of private jobs for locals, struck down in 2023, reflects jobless growth.
2. **Dominant castes seek quotas**: Agrarian distress drove the Patidar (2015), Jat (2016) and Maratha agitations for secure jobs.
3. **Resource frontier conflicts**: Dongria Kondh gram sabhas rejected Vedanta's Niyamgiri mine after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling.
4. **Identity loosened and marketed**: Urban anonymity and Dalit enterprise through DICCI loosen ascriptive bonds, while GI tags and the Hornbill Festival market identity itself.

**Post-Liberal Economy and Communalism**

1. **Insecurity finds scapegoats**: Insecure urban work makes it easier to blame the religious "other", as boycott calls against minority traders show.
2. **Segregation and digital polarisation**: Enclaves such as Juhapura in Ahmedabad freeze segregation, and cheap data after 2016 spread rumours behind the 2017-18 lynchings, prompting the Tehseen Poonawalla guidelines (2018).
3. **Interdependence as a brake**: Varanasi's Hindu silk traders and Muslim weavers, like Varshney's Calicut, show markets binding communities.

**Way Forward**

1. **Jobs and consent**: Labour-intensive manufacturing, PESA and Forest Rights Act enforcement, and even-handed policing under Prakash Singh (2006) reduce the insecurity that identity politics feeds on.

**Conclusion**

The post-liberal economy loosened ascriptive identities yet made identity a shield against insecurity. Inclusive, job-rich growth that keeps communities interdependent secures fraternity under Article 51A(e).

Discuss the impact of post-liberal economy on ethnic identity and communalism.

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