Identity And Social Conflict Analysis

Huffman argues that identities are complex matter. Identities are historically bound and socially constructed element and it can be changed in time to time. Every individual has own self-identity that defined by own experiences, and cultural practices. Huffman discussed about four theoretical approaches to understanding the role of identities in conflict. Here, I would like to discuss about theory of protected social conflict in the context of Nepalese conflict, which I have experienced in my own life. Nepal is one of the developing country in the world, and suffering from the internal political conflict throughout the decade long civil war. The civil war thrown by the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) from 1996 and came on the peace agreement
First, a theoretical concept, identity is used to understand various aspects of identification processes and explain their impact on social relationship and social conflict. Edward E Azar describes the violent events as Protracted Social Conflict (PSC), which means social conflicts happen when communities are deprived of the satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of the communal identity. The deprivation is the result of a complex chain involving the role of the state and international relations. In addition, initial conditions (colonial legacy, domestic historical setting, and the multi-communal nature of the society) play important roles in shaping the genesis of protracted social conflict (Azar). According to Azar, Protected Social conflicts have three different characteristics, such as Genesis, Process Dynamics, and Outcomes Analysis. Genesis refers to a set of conditions that are responsible for the transformation of non-conflictual situations into the conflictual situation. Azar says that there are four key factors in this practice. The four preconditions are communal content, deprivation of human needs, government and the state role, and international linkages. Nepalese conflict is closely related to this theory because people have been dominated by state, and
The groups could be ethnic, racial, class and ideological. Most of the conflicts escalate because of inequality, power and its dynamics in a relationship are fundamental to any approach to working with conflict. Basically, imbalance and misuse of power create conflict within a society and the state. Conflict between minority groups and government can be shown as simple, however, it would be a critical problem in the long run. The best way to solve the problem is conflict transformation before its turning to the violent act. The transformation of the inequality within a state or society can be difficult task, however conflict analysis and peace building process can take some action for the conflict resolution. In Nepalese context, first, the government has to have dialogue with their people; dialogue has huge power in conflict transformation. When you sit together, you can have human interaction with serious feelings, and you also have to negotiate with some give and take. Second, all parties should have valid perspective and legitimate demand for power. Which means, you should create win-win situation, where no one feels as a looser. The inequality and power disparity is mutual problem in Nepal, so you should create an environment, where all parties feel mutual responsibility. Based on Burton's idea that conflict analysis and resolution can help to analyze the situation and link with the Basic Human Need Theory