Community Symbols in State Institutions: Presence and Implications

Abstract

This paper investigates the presence of community symbols in the state institutions in India. It introduces the idea of symbolic interaction in these state institutions and the exclusionary practice through those symbols, on the grounds of community identities such as religion, caste and ethnicity, is a major focus of this study. Drawing correlations with the ideas of many sociologists and anthropologists like Althusser, Foucault, Emile Durkheim and Mary Douglas who have elaborated the affiliation of identity and symbols and also the social importance of community symbols for unity and seclusion among society from critical sociological perspective. It has been observed that, there is strong nexus of government and the dominant community in the state institutions, and the interdependency of their existence, as the political creates the space through social and religious instruments which communicate through the symbols and on the other hand social gets the power from political, for sustenance and growth. It is also found that social issue of ‘exclusion’ makes the power relation visible in the democratic-secular state institutions and the tool of exclusion is based on community symbols. So the discussion is about the duality of ideology and the practice in state institutions resultant, how it is visible form of discrimination and exclusion.