Nurturing The Virtues Of Social Cohesion

Social cohesion refers to a process which keeps the societal institutions and actors together in a shared frame. It is an act of self-defense which strengthens its coherence, integrity and efficiency for the general wellbeing of its all members including the social mobility of less well off. Nepal is a heterogeneous society of 125 caste and ethnic groups, 124 languages, over 8 religions and several cults. Breaking social isolation is mutually gratifying. It spurs a sense of trust and togetherness. Heterogeneity is not a problem in collective action if its members perform specific tasks desired to fulfill each other’s needs and promote group integration for the attainment of progress. Harnessing social cohesion of diverse creeds is a prized goal to rear nationality and basic humanity. 

Nepalis have demonstrated this during crises times -- violent conflict, earthquake and pandemic. A cohesive society readily takes cooperative action in support of public goods.  In such a society, each individual member and group respects other’s rights, identities, lawful interests and opinions and shows empathy to each other’s concerns without any prejudice or egoism. Nepalis may have different dialects. Intergroup communication is eased by Nepali language acting as lingua franca.  It serves mutual understanding and creates national communicative space vital for nurturing national identity despite deference barriers maintained by people.

Shared values

Value based social cohesion of people can be enduring. It hones their ability to think, feel, decide and act on the basis of their shared interests. In the absence of shared values shaped by sane tradition, public education, socialisation, spiritualism, culture, communication and coordination, outside penetration can easily disrupt the social unity and insert dissembling propensity.  A society that is more tolerant to its internal social diversity and moderately open to the zeitgeist reflects better flexibility and resilience in cooperation, competition and transactions. In democratic dispensation, Nepali society has also to cope with accelerating changes induced by ecology, technology, economy and politics. It enables us to face bubbling cauldrons of ideas, imaginations and issues flowing from various sources of society and intellectual disciplines to become adaptable and cohesive rooted in the wellspring of satto guna, the virtues of civil society.  

The social side of human nature, the participation of Nepalis in common projects and coordination of collective efforts raise them above selfishness. The basic motif of people for conscious social cohesion emanates from their innate need to fulfill each other’s biological, social, cultural, economic and spiritual needs and desires and ability to shape society’s peaceful trajectory. By contrast, a sense of sub-conscious tribalism and indoctrination enforces cognitive conformity. A desire for modernity and democracy cultivates rational and critical perspectives to social cohesion and discovers ways to settle frictions in inter-personal and inter-institutional relations on the basis of reason, deliberation and adjudication. 

Nepalis have fostered social cohesion by their inter-connectedness on the basis of cultural and spiritual values, market exchange and coercive measures of the state and soft power of socialisation.  It has spurred their solidarity to resolve the problems of society through cooperative action. The tendency of Nepali political parties to stratify population according to their political preference and seek loyalty on a partisan basis has a deeper effect on social cohesion. Mainstream media too have adopted an instrumental approach to create a feeling of “us” and “them,” a politics of difference, rather than contribute to the reconciliation and social cohesion of this post-conflict, post-quake and post-pandemic nation. 

Markets can also facilitate exchange and integration of society and become meeting points of all if it is based on ethical practice of shuva lav. The sense of belonging to a community, society and the state is based on commitment to common values, willingness of the people to share their weal and woe, bridge wealth and power gaps, cultivate trust and nourish emotional attachment to each other through the nurturing of the binding values of individuals with the community. The social virtues of people bring them together and link them with the family, community, society and the state. 

In the educational and health practices built on the economic model “I” habitually writ large in opposition to the wider interest of people. It has weakened the concept of “we” virtues. A shift from “I” to “we” feeling can overcome anxiety disorder and serves as a key multiplier of success. The health of any society is decided by the scale of social responsibility, trust and ties of its members constituted as citizens, voters, workers and consumers, not only exercising individual autonomy and enjoying lawless freedom by maximising individual choice and preference. The domination of the market over the family values is atomising it, increasing divorce rate and street children, fostering migration, materialist culture and disconnecting people from their community, society and the nation. 

The voice of public intellectuals and spiritual rituals in Nepal now is precisely set to boost its traditional values of love to the land, people and culture. It is generating a collective feeling of civic patriotism.  The modes of social life are interlinked as people have developed overlapping spiritual, social and cultural values, ecological ethics and economic interdependence created by market exchange. Unbridled pursuit of self-interests does not create virtue for social cohesion.  Isolating one social group from the other only alienates both from sharing and caring culture. The old social division of labour has defined caste hierarchy, patriarchy and feudal vertical ties in Nepal. 

Now the ties are increasingly horizontalized by scientific education, democracy, modernity and human rights. Rational will of people is governing their life in a self-chosen direction. This has changed the concept of solidarity, nature of social relations and organisational culture. Social researchers often set the cognitive construction of the human condition and define the ways for social mobility by removing barriers, creating choices for people and defining the congruent life of social cooperation, responsibility, respect and reconciliation. Democratic concepts, institutions, processes and values are shifting Nepali society from traditional to legal, contractual and rational direction. It requires human elements. The lingering impunity and selective justice persisting in the nation has turned an egalitarian society promised in the constitution only alluring.

 The political culture of Nepal follows informal social traits of hierarchy, feudalism and cronyism, the tacit text of society without infusing its heritage of tolerance. This tolerance has defined family as the sphere of love, society the area of affinity, politics the locus of freedom, economy the domain of exchange of public goods for the fulfillment of material needs, civil society the realm of knowledge and charity and political parties and the state the domain of solidarity. If the life of civil society and politics is less driven by ethical principles, human behaviour turns unsettled and anomic. 

This is why political leaders of Nepal lack mature political trust to evolve a sense of integrity of the national political community — the state — beyond the adversarial politics where winner-takes-all official positions subverts its neutrality and impersonality thus becoming a barrier to social cohesion and national integration.  Disposition is a matter of political socialisation — learning about rights, duties, principles, actors and institutions of democracy underlined in the constitution. Mistrust among the leaders arising out of betrayal of each other has bred political instability. Friction in the parties often oscillates to various directions depending on the weight of incentive structure.  

The nation’s culture is a source of knowledge that seeks to balance between tradition and modernity and trust building across various social classes so that vital social cohesion is not upset beyond repair. Managing social fissures in Nepal is essential to promote centripetal forces of society for nation building. It provides a frame for psychological, economic and political progress. Common background condition of Nepalis helps them shape a shared future with a common stake in the state. The duty-based Nepali civil society can excavate the nation’s bridging and bonding social capital and motivate various actors for social investments in education, health, infrastructure, livelihood, jobs and entrepreneurship. 

It can recover the nations’ social cohesion partly weakened by the economic model of neo-liberal politics against the liberal constitution, partly by the divisive nature of politics and partly by unfinished transitional justice. It has yielded different payoffs for the people causing social fissures, political instability and economic downturn.  The economic model of politics is based on competition, not multi-cultural quest for inclusion, economisation of politics, not legislative sovereignty over public policies and egoistic instinct, not constitutional path of political acculturation and socialisation of responsibilities.

Normative socialisation

 It has a deeper impact on the formation of social association of various identities-oriented communities, not based on the solidarity of citizenship.  Couched along the line of end of ideology, the political establishment of Nepal has served the interests of the upper strata of elites, leaving the people suffocated, sullen, cynic, frustrated, ready to change political sides and even migrate abroad. A sound cohesion of specialised societal institutions and actors outperforms those whose structures are fragmented. 

Social cohesion can flourish in Nepal if people have personal preference for the liberty of private goods as per their taste, capacity and interests and shared concern for the availability of public goods. It is the basis of equality. It helps every Nepali to attach to social order but has multiple choices of membership to many other institutions such as social groups, professional unions, functional federations, political parties, civil society, etc. Stable attachment of membership depends on the structure of incentives provided by the constitution and institutions and normative socialisation where each group of Nepalis believes that their personal good is tied with the general public goods that serves the cohesive force of the entire nation.  

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)