Majoritarianism

Back in 2018 I saw fit to moan about something called majoritarianism, an unpleasant process whereby a majority abuse a minority for no very good reason, certainly not a sufficient reason. With some of the worst examples being associated with race or religion, and with a lot of the race being defined by skin colour. India was one such, where the party presently in power encourages the billion Hindus to abuse the 200 million Muslims.

All of which I have been reminded of this morning by the article in the FT at reference 3.

Sadly, the situation seems to be much the same in China where the party presently in power abuses Muslims, particularly those further defined by race. Wikipedia suggests that conflict there between Muslims and the rest has been going on for as long as it has been in India across the way, across the mountains. With an important difference being that the proportion of Muslims in China (say 2%) is much smaller than it is in India (say 15%). And maybe as an officially atheist state, they have it in for all foreign religions, particularly all those signed up to the Old Testament. Alien intrusions from the west. Alternative centres of power and influence.

Sadly also, the west is not in a very good position to do anything about it in either place. Not least because its own record in such matters is not that clever.

References

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/02/majoritarianism.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India. From where I have lifted the snap above.

Reference 3: Humiliating cricket defeat exposes India’s Hindu-Muslim divide: Ruling party is accused of fomenting religious enmity to deflect attention from a sputtering economy - Amy Kazmin, FT - 2021.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China.