LINKAGES BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT AND SPREAD OF EXTREMISM
- (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 2- Tribal Communities in India)
- (Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper1- Social empowerment)
- Without development processes, there is no organic end to the causes of discontent, unrest and extremism. Development and security together lay the foundations for sustainable peace.
- According to theory, experience or practice, they form a triangle with justice. The state of denials is neither socially futuristic nor has any overcoming potential.
- The issues are meant to be acknowledged irrespective of their severity. They don’t find scope for major spread if they are timely addressed as fundamental problems.
- All the opportunities for socio-economic corrections reside in and with time; therefore development plans, resources and efforts should travel through space and time from all the directions and strive for a balance between economic growth and social protection making any extremism affected area the development convergence zone.
- There is a need for developing region-specific action plans to prevent existing extremism and avert its spread in any form. This calls for broad-based political support and local ownership, neutralizing the specific challenges and circumstances in the particular context, and following procedural and institutional principles that could guide a step-by-step process to achieve development goals doing away with any kind of one-size-fits-all model, and to diminish the effects of inequality and imbalance.
- Misleading interpretations of culture, hatred and ignorance mar the process of persuasion and cognitive change. In this situation, ‘soft power’ is a solution to deal with intractable conflicts arising out of socio-psychological barriers.
- Deliverables mirroring social empowerment by means of education, skills development, employment facilitation, human rights and the rule of law have enough in them to undo the negativity of linkages between development and spread of extremism.