Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession,[1] separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy.[2] Some groups refer to their organizing as independence, self-determination, partition or decolonization movements instead of, or in addition to, autonomist, separatist or secession movements.[citation needed] While some critics may equate separatism and religious segregation, racist segregation, or sexist segregation, some separatists argue that separation by choice is not the same as government-enforced segregation and may serve useful purposes.[3][4][5][6][7]
Motivations
Eastern Ukraine's separatism emerged as a reaction to the Euromaidan revolution
Groups may have one or more motivations for separation, including:[8]
emotional resentment and hatred of rival communities.
resistance by victims of oppression, including denigration of their language, culture or religion.
propaganda by those who hope to gain politically from intergroup conflict and hatred.
economic and political dominance of one group that does not share power and privilege in an egalitarian fashion.
detaching from generally accepted stereotypes and sacrificing more time to create happiness mote sustainability than the current flow of things.
economic motivations: seeking to end economic exploitation by more powerful group or, conversely, to escape economic redistribution from a richer to a poorer group.
preservation of threatened religious, language or other cultural tradition.
destabilization from one separatist movement giving rise to others.
geopolitical power vacuum from breakup of larger states or empires.
continuing fragmentation as more and more states break up.
feeling that the perceived nation was added to the larger state by illegitimate means.
the perception that the state can no longer support one's own group or has betrayed their interests.
opposition to political decisions.
wish to have a more practical political structure and not rely on people who are located far away to govern them or otherwise impractical solutions.
How far separatist demands will go toward full independence, and whether groups pursue constitutional and nonviolent or armed violence, depend on a variety of economic, political, social and cultural factors, including movement leadership[9] and the government's response.[10] Governments may respond in a number of ways, some of which are mutually exclusive. Some include:[11]
accede to separatist demands
improve the circumstances of disadvantaged minorities, be they religious, linguistic, territorial, economic or political
adopt "asymmetric federalism" where different states have different relations to the central government depending on separatist demands or considerations
allow minorities to win in political disputes about which they feel strongly, through parliamentary voting, referendum, etc.
settle for a confederation or a commonwealth relationship where there are only limited ties among states.
Some governments suppress any separatist movement in their own country, but support separatism in other countries.
Types of separatist groups
Separatist groups practice a form of identity politics - "political activity and theorizing founded in the shared experiences of injustice of members of certain social groups." Such groups believe attempts at integration with dominant groups compromise their identity and ability to pursue greater self-determination.[12] However, economic and political factors usually are critical in creating strong separatist movements as opposed to less ambitious identity movements.[10]
A proposed flag for Khalistan, the independent Sikh state.
Religious separatist groups and sects want to withdraw from some larger religious groups and/or believe they should interact primarily with co-religionists.[citation needed]
English Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches were influential politically under Oliver Cromwell, who was himself a separatist. They were eventually called Congregationalists.[13] The Pilgrims who established the first successful colony in New England were separatists.[14]
Zionism sought the creation of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland, which separation from Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Simon Dubnow, who was ambivalent toward Zionism, formulated Jewish Autonomism which was adopted in eastern Europe by Jewish political parties such as the Bund and his own Folkspartei before World War II.[20] Zionism can also be seen as somewhat ethnic too, however, as its definition of who is Jewish has often included people of Jewish background who do not practice the Jewish religion. This is further complicated as some who had ancestors who converted to Judaism, such as some Ethiopian Jews, may not share ethnic history with the Jews[21][22] however are considered to be so although not without debate.[23]
The Partition of India and (later Pakistan andBangladesh) arose as a result of separatism on the part of Muslims.
Sikhs in India sought an independent nation of Khalistan during the 1970s and 1980s. The Khalistan movement inside India that even involved the assassination of the then Prime Minister of IndiaIndira Gandhi as a retaliation of an Indian military operation Operation Blue Star directed against Sikh militants in the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, in which many innocent Sikh civilians too lost their lives. The murder of Mrs. Indira Gandhi evoked a backlash in the form of mass murders of Sikhs in 1984, which only further strengthened the Khalistan Movement, but it largely subsided owing to the efforts of the police in Punjab, led by a Sikh police officer KPS Gill. However, some in the Sikh diaspora in the West and elsewhere, and even Sikhs in India, still support the idea of Khalistan, and there have been sporadic instances of violence for this cause, or attempts at the same, which have been foiled by India's intelligence agencies and security personnel.[24]
Ethnic separatism
Catalan independentist mural in Belfast.File:Active separatist movements in the European Union.pngMap of active separatist movements in Europe. Red names indicate regions with movements that only claim greater autonomy within the actual state. Black names indicate regions with important secessionist movements, although both categories include moderate movements. The nations highlighted in colors are the territories claimed by the local nationalist groups, including areas out of the state's borders and cases of annexation to other states (click to enlarge). OLF rebels in Kenya armed with AK-47 rifles.A Tuareg rebel fighter in northern Niger.Silesians demonstrating in Katowice (in Silesia).
Ethnic separatism is based more on cultural and linguistic differences than religious or racial differences, which also may exist. Notable ethnic separatist movements include:
Switzerland's division into cantons along geographical, religious and linguistic lines.[29]
French-speaking Quebec debating and voting on separation from Canada over several decades. It is unclear if this is a matter of ethnic, linguistic or territorial nationalism.
Some separatist groups seek to separate from others along racist lines. They oppose marriage and association with members of other "races" and seek separate schools, businesses, churches and other institutions or even separate societies, territories, countries, and governments.
White separatism in the United States and Western Europe seeks separation and survival of what they call the "white race" and limits to immigration by "non-whites". According to two sociologists writing in the year 2000, most separatists now formally reject any ideology of white supremacy in public, though some advocacy groups continue to criticize such separatist groups.[40]
Separatist feminism is women's choosing to separate from ostensibly male-defined, male-dominated institutions, relationships, roles and activities.[41]Lesbian separatism advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Some separatist feminists and lesbian separatists have chosen to live apart in intentional community, cooperatives, and on land trusts.[42] "Gay" separatism including both lesbians and gay men holds they should form a community distinct and separate from other groups.[43][44]
^Link to:
Chima, Jugdep. "Effects of Political Leadership on Ethnic Separatist Movements in India" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, April 12, 2007 (PDF); Chima, Jugdep. "How Does Political Leadership Affect the Trajectories of Ethnic Separatist Insurgencies?: Comparative Evidence from Movements in India" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott Wardman Park, Omni Shoreham, Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C., September 01, 2005 (PDF).
^ abSee D.L. Horowitz's "Patterns of Ethnic Separatism", originally published in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1981, vol 23, 165-95. Republished in John A. Hall, The State: Critical Concepts, Routledge, 1994.
^Pinson, Koppel S. (1958). Simon Dubnow. pp. 13–69.
^Cite error: The named reference hammer2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference shen-2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Lucotte G, Smets P (December 1999). "Origins of Falasha Jews studied by haplotypes of the Y chromosome". Human Biology. 71 (6): 989–993. PMID10592688.
^Mughal, Muhammad Aurang Zeb. 2012. Spain. Steven L. Denver (ed.), Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues, Vol. 3. Armonk, NY: M .E. Sharpe, pp. 674-675.
Cabestan, Jean-Pierre; Pavković, Aleksandar, eds. (2013). Secessionism and Separatism in Europe and Asia: To have a state of one’s own. Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-66774-6.
Miller, Michelle Ann (2004). The Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam law: a serious response to Acehnese separatism?. pp. 333–351. 5(3){{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Miller, Michelle Ann (2012). Autonomy and Armed Separatism in South and Southeast Asia. Singapore: ISEAS.
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