28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

in the name of religious traditions thereby confusing myths with realities. Obviously, India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh have different traditions to deal with.
1054.2 The role of cultural elites in the ethnic conflicts in post-Soviet area, Y. Bossin, Moscow
State University, Moscow, Russia
The collapse of the Soviet Union triggered the rise of ethnic feuds in the former Soviet states.
Local intellectuals actively promoted ethnic nationalism to replace the Soviet ideology. Local
cultural elite gaining enormous political influence during the first years of independence however
failed to handle the power of nationalism in a balanced way. The lack of political culture,
dislocations in economic sector as well as the weakness of democratic institutions contributed to
the ethnic conflicts formation and as a result many of the former Soviet states were overtaken by
protracted ethnic violence.
1054.3 Invitations to terror? Institutional illegitimacy and the deviant legitimation of religioand
ethnopolitical violence, J.T. Drummond, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Do governments or ruling elites invite the very terrorism they seek to contain or end? How do
elites influence the process by which individuals choose to embrace violent means? This paper
draws upon examples of Euro-American white separatism and anti-state Islamist militancy to
explain a process of “deviant legitimation” by which individuals come to embrace violence as a
preferred and subjectively just means to desired ends. Cross-cultural empirical research on the
social construction and attributions of political and judicial legitimacy is detailed; institutional
legitimacy is presented as a key component in deviant legitimation. Implications of findings are
discussed.
1054.4 The colonial imprint on the political psychology of ruling elite and the ethnic conflict in
Sri Lanka, V.N. Nithiyanandam, Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland, New Zealand
The ongoing ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka has in many respects been the creation of the ruling elite
in Sri Lanka. Although it had largely been a manifestation of the post-independent era, the
necessary prelude had evolved during colonial times. The elite in itself was a class formation
during the colonial rule. The objective of this paper is to first trace its formation and then analyse
how its ruling psychology had gradually been moulded in ethnic terms. The paper will
demonstrate how sociopolitical as well as socioeconomic forces have influenced the overriding
importance given to (Sinhalese) ethnicity leading towards a conflict situation.
1054.5 Ethno-religious conflicts and civilian intervention in South Asia: In the context of India
and Pakistan, B.M. Jain 1 , P. James 2 , 1 University of Rajasthan, Jawahar Nagar, India; 2 University
of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
This paper is an attempt to examine the phenomenon of ethno-religious conflicts in the context of
India and Pakistan by tracing its origin in their domestic settings in a comparative perspective. I
have attempted to understand the dynamics of ethno-religious conflicts within the psycho-cultural
paradigm by examining a host of questions. These include. To what extent is the issue of cultural
identity linked to ethno-religious conflicts? What are the political correlates behind the ongoing
violent conflict in India and Pakistan? Why have state regimes in India and Pakistan failed to deal
with communal violence? Finally, I have proposed civilian intervention as an alternative to the
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