Conflict & resolution

India is a pluralistic society. Thus there is every possibility for conflicts to take place, the reasons being cultural, ethnic, religious, social, economic, and of course political. The Assam scenario is even more complex. Very few states in India have so many ethnic, linguistic and religious groups and sub-groups like in Assam. Because of this Assam also happens to be one of the finest examples of a pluralistic society. Conflicts and friction among communities at various levels too are bound to occur. But then, what is also important is that this pluralistic society also has in it a great inherent quality of resilience. Moreover, while social scientists often say that conflict resolution is a cultural phenomenon and is dependent on any society's relevant norms, practices and institutions, the same is very true in the case of Assam. For this, however, the broad Assamese society owes a lot to one person, he was none other than Srimanta Sankaradeva. It was the multifaceted Mahapurush who had ingrained in Assamese society certain mechanisms of conflict resolution, which have over the centuries become part of tradition and culture. As have been often pointed out, it was because of the naamghar and xatra institutions instituted by Srimanta Sankaradeva that the average Assamese has two unavoidable affiliations, that of temporal allegiance to the State, and that of spiritual submission to the faith and the guru. This not only made the average Assamese an average god-fearing being but also ingrained in him or her spiritual obligation in a democratic social set-up where tolerance became the rule and not the exception. The two hallowed institutions also became epicentres of justice delivery, where again mediation and not punishment became the general mechanism for resolution of issues. Looking at the global scenario, one will find that while conflict is universal, how it is expressed and managed are not. There are a variety of techniques and processes for handling conflict around the world which take in the culture of the warring groups. It is in this context that the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Saturday called for developing a mechanism for conflict resolution based on the long and rich tradition that India and certain other Asian countries have of collaborative and amicable settlement of disputes and conflicts.