Cross-Cultural Conversation

A New Way of Learning

Anindita N. Balslev

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000074963
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophie
• Subtopic: Sozialphilosophie

This book proposes a radical shift in the way the world thinks about itself by highlighting the significance of Cross-Cultural Conversations. Moving beyond conventional boundaries, it examines the language in which histories are written; analyzes how scientific technology is changing the idea of identity; and highlights the need for a larger identity across nationality, race, religion, gender, ethnicity and class. It asks for a concerted effort to engage each other in open conversational forums on a range of contemporary global issues, alter our attitudes toward self and the other, and unlearn prejudices that perpetuate the practice of divisive identities.

The book also explores critical themes such as political actions, solidarity-in-diversity, clash of social identities, tensions between nationalism and globalism, the quest for global peace and authentic meeting of world religions. Further, it discusses the evolving connection between science and religion, focusing on key philosophical ideas that have permeated the Indian cultural soil.

The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, religious studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies.

1
Cross-Cultural Conversation as a New Way of Learning

Contact between cultures is the oxygen for civilization.

– Aimee Cesaire

The worldwide sharing of advanced scientific technology provides us with a rare opportunity for manifesting an attitudinal change today on multiple levels of interconnectedness between the “self and the other.” Is this not the time to discern our common aspirations in the global context?

– ANB

A global sharing of advanced scientific technology has facilitated the mobility of people, goods and ideas across vast geographical distances and hostile terrain in an unprecedented manner. This present scenario has many facets and its huge impact is often assessed primarily in terms of political economy, but it is indeed equally significant in the sphere of educational offerings, healthcare, tourism, innovations and inventions in various domains, just as much as in the area of international relations. There is undoubtedly a widespread recognition today that we are living in an increasingly “interdependent” and “interconnected” world.

Despite this promising contemporary scenario, however, what is rather astounding to notice is that the task of bridging some of the important cultural gaps is proving to be so extraordinarily problematic. Indeed, the repercussions of the “we and they” divide seem to have been aggravated in certain contexts and poignantly so especially in those conflict-ridden situations where religious identity is intermingled with already existing social, economic and political skirmishes. Many have observed that at present we seem to be living in somewhat perilous conditions, menaced by the “destructive culture wars of our time.”¹ Some are even inclined to interpret this situation as indicative of a “clash of civilization.”²

Watching the reactions to current scenarios across the globe, one is tempted to observe that a sense of powerlessness has come to pervade the minds of many of us across cultures, who are often at a loss to comprehend the kind of thinking that is really at work behind a series of atrocious incidents³ where many people’s lives have come to an end abruptly and unexpectedly in recent years. These incidents are not because of any natural catastrophes or due to some unintended or accidental human actions but have occurred precisely at the instigation of other human beings – as it has been reported frequently – who carefully designed these occurrences well in advance. On a collective level, human relationships are severely fractured. Additionally, what is even more disturbing is to note that this kind of planned group activity, seeking to foster violence and polarity, can no longer be seen merely as a regional problem but as a threat to basic human rights and freedom of expression that are cherished worldwide. This ongoing undeclared war – be that in the name of terrorism or counter-terrorism – is producing untold numbers of innocent victims from diverse cultural backgrounds, demonstrating more glaringly than ever that no civilizational advance has altered the terrible fact that most human suffering not only has been but also continues to be man-made.

Today, it seems to me, no one can ignore the need for combatting these negative forces that are engulfing us, which largely seem to arise from past conflicts that have not been resolved and wounds that have not yet been healed, apart from the obvious pressure of insatiable greed and hunger for power that turn humans into predators. Amid this complex and confusing situation, we are all becoming keenly aware of the gaps in our cultural understanding and of the pitiful lack of adequate mechanisms in the existing institutional structures that affect all of us. Evidently, conflict resolution as well as conflict management is a far outcry especially in cross-cultural and international contexts until a range of issues are adequately addressed.

Is it not time to ask ourselves with sincerity and candor whether we have really made the effort to alter the imbalances by seeking mediation via conversation with some genuine empathy and imagination? We have not indeed exhausted the most significant of all strategies available to us – that is, until we have employed the most amazing tool that we humans have, the capacity to articulate our thoughts that are enabling and consider the concerns that are expressed by others with care. An open conversational setting may well lead us out of this mess by allowing us to communicate to each other, giving the participants a chance to express our pain and anxieties, our dreams and aspirations, along with our deepest anxieties with regard to how to find ways to avoid confrontational politics.

Even if this is by no means a simple task but rather a serious challenge to take up, a few rare examples of such endeavors entailing open conversation are available in our recorded history. Experience has shown that – to begin with – it is particularly helpful to introduce some conceptual clarity that allows for a clearer perception of the nature and the context of conflicts and the real demands of the contending parties so that all concerned can move forward.⁴ A scrupulous analysis of disturbed situations generally discloses an entanglement of various issues, each of which needs to be addressed separately. A closer look at a number of violent action-plans, for example, often seems to disclose that one criterion which is invariably used aims at triggering a projection of “otherness” as a mark of enmity. It is noteworthy that generally in almost all cases, the involved parties are either of different ethnicities or representatives of two opposed political regimes or of different nationalities, religion and so on. The intent in most of such cases seems to have – among other more sinister implications – a call for a blatant “exclusion” of the “other.” If history abounds with radical examples of ethnic cleansing, riots and holocausts, it also clearly lays bare how a range of various formulations of otherness have been attributed to specific group as targets.

Today the conceptual formulations a sense of “we and they” know of vast differences from those coined at a time when advanced technology was not known. Although repeated efforts to project a sense of “otherness” – with whatever intent – still continue, the contemporary setting of a technological civilization has no doubt a distinct impact on all of us. Given that mountain ranges, oceans, deserts and forests do not pose much of a hindrance for travel and communication in our time, there prevails a sense of physical closeness among human beings of distant lands that has equally a significant psychological dimension. This latter has much to do with the intricacies of how variedly a sense of identity is construed. Today as we go about our daily chores, we simply cannot ignore the fact that we all have “multiple social identities,” such as national, religious, racial, ethnic, gender and more. What is noteworthy is that not only as individuals we are affiliated with different groups but also these memberships very often overlap with each other, there being various criteria of diverse group formations involving the same individuals. Thus, in the global scenario, for example, interactions among members of a specific group, say, all having the same professional or religious identities, may go on smoothly while the participants may well be members of different nation-states. It is important in this connection to take note of the fact that an abstract “otherness” is obtained only by viewing an individual/a group through a single-identity lens, as exemplified ahead. This is a kind of conceptual manipulation for construing “otherness,” which is often visibly employed in real-life scenarios.⁵

This is also why we have to be especially cautious as we probe acute conflict zones and intricate societal situations in order to diagnose our strange and misleading obsessions of looking at ourselves and especially at “others” exclusively through a “single-identity lens.” This is often done by ignoring various other social identities that are shared as well as cherished.⁶ Indeed, it may be emphasized here that this propensity to select only a single identity as a marker for a group at the cost of various other identities that are shared with the contenders may now be branded as a questionable social practice or at least something to be aware of on a collective plane. This practice seems to have significantly contributed – in some cases more radically than in others – to the construal of the “otherness” of the other, leading to severe skirmishes and violence.

Coinages of new appellations for identifying the “other,” often witnessed these days, make matters even worse. Thus, the present polarities of “victims and perpetrators,” for example, are not likely to vanish by labeling the latter as “terrorists,” who in turn often portray themselves as yesterday’s “victims” desperately seeking justice through violence today. We need to ask in this context whether this polarization is essentially due to the absence of any effective channel for expressing and addressing grievances adequately.

In any case, it is crucially important to grasp that the practice of mono-categorization of people does not help the increasingly dangerous “we and they” divide. At a time when we are getting gradually more interconnected in various spheres of our existence due to a common sharing of modern technology, it is crucially important to become aware of those attitudes and practices that thwart the rise of a sense of a “larger identity.”⁷ These old habits become poignantly noticeable when the involved partisans actually participate in CCC.

Evidently, it is not enough simply to reiterate empty phrases entailing the ideas of “interconnectedness” and “interdependence,” unless we are prepared to add some meaningful cultural contents to these. Obviously, whatever has been possible to achieve so far simply through rapid pace of travel and communication has not as yet been able to close the existing cultural gaps. A willing engagement in “cross-cultural conversation” with empathy, resourcefulness and honesty can help us to explore in collaboration the multiple layers of our increasingly intricate and multidimensional collective life. Moreover, this process needs to be strengthened via educational channels and social media.

Let me repeat that we often seem to forget that the “interconnectedness” that scientific technology has made possible can equally be used for remap-ping human relationship, not merely in terms of political economy but also in the light of larger cultural concerns. This endeavor is in the long run indispensable for the sake of envisioning a new, a less violent civilizational paradigm than the one with which we are all too familiar by now. For this purpose, we are obliged to take up, among other endeavors deemed vital in the inter-cultural context, hitherto less discussed topics touching upon the moral, the religious and the spiritual dimensions of our collective existence. Evidently, to seek to adopt a holistic approach with the view to neatly tie up some of these more profound and subtle dimensions of human existence with the urgent social, political and economic issues of the day calls for a comprehensive and vigorous undertaking, as CCC proposes.

Cross-Cultural Conversation is a project which – instead of seeking to remain confined within academia – invites participation of persons from different walks of life. The aim is to acquire the skills necessary for thinking judiciously and cross-culturally. This alone can help us to shape human interrelationships and enable us to do away with, at both the attitudinal and institutional levels, the old strategies, which invariably and repeatedly created the polarities of winners and losers, dominant and marginalized, exploiters and exploited, along various lines.

Indeed, a variety of useful suggestions can be expected from different quarters, either based on insights drawn from past experiences or inspired by futuristic visions. Furthermore, this conversation needs to be an open demonstration of the ability to share those stories of our recorded history – and there are so many of these – where victory and prosperity of a group of people often meant humiliation and utter impoverishment of another – viewed militarily, economically, socially and culturally.⁸

It seems to me that these stories can make the all the participants across the board sensitive to the present collective status of the ongoing play of violence in different regions of the globe in the name of the “we and they” divide. Perhaps while discerning the criteria for division in each case for inspiring hostility, it will be relevant to recapitulate those specific stories of atrocities and tragedies that with our hindsight we consider to be some unfortunate events that could have been tactfully avoided. These insights may indeed be particularly helpful in deepening the conviction that in every conflict situation, there are available options to violent means that are waiting to be uncovered.

Indeed, if we really take the pursuit of cross-cultural projects today as indispensable for the sake of achieving a harmonious globalized world, we should readily review as well those stories of glorious success in diverse spheres of human accomplishment of which we all have been beneficiaries, irrespective of the cultural soil that has been their source. There are innumerable examples that lay bare the fact that one’s gain is not necessarily another’s loss. Thus, if there are instances of our collective achievements that have benefitted all – be that the story of an inspiring religious movement propagating universal love or an effective nonviolent struggle for attaining social justice, a scientific discovery affecting health or education, or a technological invention that has clear positive impact on the way we all live today – these are certainly to be seen as a mark of civilizational progress, disclosing at the same time “common values” that all humanity cherishes in unison.

In this connection, it is worth emphasizing that if we are to genuinely strengthen a sense of a global community while respecting cultural diversity at local levels, we cannot overlook the task of discerning common values since these are indicative of goals that are worth seeking in collaboration. Today, when we face such global issues as climate change, violation of human rights, air or water pollution, the urgent need for poverty alleviation, prevention of curable diseases and so on and so forth, we must recognize why these are matters of concern for all humanity inhabiting a common planet with shared goals.

Indeed, cultures are repositories of a range of resources – material, intellectual and spiritual. These tell us not only how to till land to our greatest advantage or how to identify evidence that can count for knowledge but also how to live a worthy life while we are “in transit” – an inescapable predicament that we all share. CCC can open before us a mine of information and insights from authentic sources of various cultures in all respects.

Speaking of how to live, it is tempting to suggest one significant treasure house of wisdom that to this day remains largely untapped for the vast majority consists of ancient mythologies available across cultur...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Why this book?
• On the idea of CCC
• 1 Cross-Cultural Conversation as a new way of learning
• 2 Cultural diversity and the quest for a larger identity in our time
• 3 Creative tensions between nationalism and globalism
• 4 Living in a multireligious world in an age of science
• 5 Imagining soft boundaries
• Index