Composite Culture in a Multicultural Society

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Islam, Urdu and Hindu as the Other: Instruments of Cultural Homogeneity in Pakistan

Tahir Kamran

Multiculturalism denotes diversity of class, gender, language, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religious persuasions in one society. The underlying premise on which the whole discourse of multiculturalism rests refers to the recognition of diversity ‘as opposed to a monoculturalistic attitude that is based on a belief in the supremacy of one social/cultural group and demands monocentric assimilation to the dominant culture’.¹ Bhikhu Pakekh’s definition of multiculturalism, has an even broader sweep: ‘a body of beliefs and practices in terms of which a group of people understand themselves and the world and organize their individual and collective ...