Cleavage and Internal Conflict: An Example from India

• Published in: The Journal of conflict resolution 1961-03, Vol.5 (1), p.27-34
• Main Author: Beals, Alan R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child abandonment; Cleavage; Conflict/Conflicts; Cooperation; Cultural conflict; Cultural groups; Folkways; Group/Groups/Grouping/Groupism; Human aggression; Internal/Internalize/Internalized/ Internalist; Landlords; Police; Riots; Sources of Social Conflict in Agricultural Communities; Strain/Strains; Villages
• ISSN: 0022-0027; 1552-8766
• DOI: 10.1177/002200276100500104

Conflict (C) is defined in cultural terms as an exchange of behaviors symbolizing aggressive intent. It is suggested that such C within well established & relatively stable groups (grp's) tends to be the result of rational consideration of known possibilities. C is believed to emerge from the presence of unrealistic solutions to stresses or problems posed by the external conditions within which the grp operates. Such unrealistic solutions may be expressed in terms of incompatibilities between the cultural tradition & the reality of external conditions or they may be expressed in terms of the development of inconsistencies within the cultural tradition & soc org of the grp. Using these terms, a distinction is made between tightly organized & loosely organized grp's. Proneness to C is interpreted as a function of the degree to which strain is present within a particular cultural tradition & of the varieties of strain which are present. It is suggested that patterns of strain may be atomistic, leading to C between individuals, or schismatic, leading to C between subgrp's. Schismatic strains are expressed within the soc org in terms of cleavages or alignments of subgrp's which encourage the development of C by holding out the possibility of a dichotomization of the grp. The possible theoretical contributions of the concepts of strain & cleavage are explored in terms of field data concerning 30 neighboring villages in Gulbarga District, South India. It is assumed that the selection of neighboring villages leads to a partial control of many kinds of historical & cultural factors. The 30 villages are classified as hamlets & small, medium & large villages. C between organized 'parties' was absent in hamlets & occurred most frequently in small & large villages. In small villages, C took the form of schisms within the membership of a numerically dominant caste. In large villages, C was usually between castes of approximately equal size & status. Villages having C also appeared to have a high incidence of public cooperative enterprises. It is concluded that party C tends to develop in cases where variations in village size weaken normal C regulating mechanisms & where the presence of a numerically dominant caste or a pair of equally powerful castes make possible the division of the village into 2 nearly equal parts. Where there is C it tends to follow existing lines of cleavage. AA.