Rethinking Multiculturalism Cultural Diversity and Polical Theory

Bhikhu Parekh argues for a pluralist perspective on cultural diversity. Writing from both within the liberal tradition and outside of it as a critic, he challenges what he calls the "moral monism" of much of traditional moral philosophy, including contemporary liberalism--its tendency to assert that only one way of life or set of values is worthwhile and to dismiss the rest as misguided or false. He defends his pluralist perspective both at the level of theory and in subtle nuanced analyses of recent controversies. Thus, he offers careful and clear accounts of why cultural differences should be respected and publicly affirmed, why the separation of church and state cannot be used to justify the separation of religion and politics, and why the initial critique of Salman Rushdie (before a Fatwa threatened his life) deserved more serious attention than it received.

Rejecting naturalism, which posits that humans have a relatively fixed nature and that culture is an incidental, and "culturalism," which posits that they are socially and culturally constructed with only a minimal set of features in common, he argues for a dialogic interplay between human commonalities and cultural differences. This will allow, Parekh argues, genuinely balanced and thoughtful compromises on even the most controversial cultural issues in the new multicultural world in which we live.
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Moral Monism

Greek monism

Christian monism

Monism of classical liberalism

Locke

J. S. Mill

Critique of monism

2. Forms of Pluralism

Vico

Montesquieu

Herder

Misunderstanding culture

3. Contemporary Liberal Responses to Diversity

Rawls

Raz

Kymlicka

General comments

4. Conceptualizing Human Beings

Human nature

Basis of cultural diversity

Pluralist universalism

Asian values

5. Understanding Culture

The nature and structure of culture

The dynamics of culture

Cultural community

Loyalty to culture

Cultural interaction

Cultural diversity

Evaluating cultures

Respecting cultures

6. Reconstituting the Modern State

The Canadian debate

The Indian debate

The search for new political formations

7. The Political Structure of Multicultural Society

Modes of political integration

Structure of authority

Justice

Collective rights

Common culture

Multicultural education

National identity

Conditions of success

8. Equality in a Multicultural Society

Equality of difference

Equal treatment

Contextualizing equality

Limits of equality

Implications

9. Logic of Intercultural Evaluation

Intercultural dialogue

Female circumcision and other practices

Polygamy

General observations

10. Politics, Religion and Free Speech

The Satanic Verses

Responses to Muslim protests

Logic of political discourse

Communal libel or group defamation

Free speech

Religion and public life

11. Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index