A Study of Socio-Political Attitudes of Minority Groups in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study focused on some socio-political attitudes, like attitudes towards ethnic relations, voting attitudes, and attitudes towards conservative-radical ideas. Its relation with ethnic demographics like majority-minority (Hindu-Muslim), sex (Male-Female) and socio­economic status (High-Low) in the socio-political context of Bangladesh. Different Theoretical approaches were taken such as 1. Three Psychological Approaches to Minority-Majority Conflict: (a) Realistic Group Conflict Theory (b) Social Identity Theories (c) Psychodynamic Theories 2. Social In-group -Out-group Model: 3. Psychoanalytic Approaches: 4. Sociological Approaches: The study tried to find the functional relationships existing among various dimensions of ethic relations, voting attitudes and attitudes towards conservative and radical ideas. The broad objective of the study was to explore the patterns of socio-political attitudes of the ethnic groups in Bangladesh. More specifically the objectives of the study were as follows: To study pattern of similarities and differences in socio-political attitudinal constellations on ethnic relation, voting, and ideological orientations by the Minority( Hindu) and Majority(Muslim) as related to sex ,and socio-economic status To study patterns of similarities and differences in ethnic attitudes as related to socio-Political attitudes. To reflect on Majority (Muslim) and Minority (Hindu) groups on attitudes toward healthy minority-majority ethnic relation. To study male-female differences in attitude toward ethnic relations in Bangladeshi socio-political context. To study similarity and differences in attitude toward ethnic relations related to conservatism-radicalism, and voting attitude of the Muslim majority and the Hindu minority groups. To study the differences in attitude toward ethnic relations as related to high-low socio-economic status .urban-rural residential background. The measures used in this study were as follows: 1. Attitudes towards healthy minority-majority relation scale (A THMMRS) 2. Voting Attitude scale (VAS) 3. Conservatism-Radicalism Scale (C-R) The study used student sample. A total of 400 Ss equally divided into Muslim (majority) and Hindus (minority) groups were used. Each group was again equally sub-divided into Male and Female. Each Male and Female category was again sub-divided into High and Low according to their socio-economic status. Thus a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design involving 2 levels of group composition (Muslim/Hindus), 2 levels of sex (Male/Female) and 2 levels of economic status (High/Low) were used. Analysis of results was computed in two parts. In the first part a factorial ANOV A using 2 x 2 x 2 design was used on the scores of Attitudes towards healthy minority-majority relation scale, Voting Attitude Scale and conservatism-radicalism scale. In the second part, t-test was computed on the scores of these scales. The study made three specific hypotheses. These were as follows: ……………………………………………