CBSE Class 10 Answered

• Democracy involves competition among various political parties that seek to magnify social divides for their own political gains.
• Politicisation of social problems converts social divisions into political divisions. This often results in larger conflicts, violence and  even has the potential to cause vivisection of a country.
• Social divisions cause ghettoisation of society. If politics is allowed to exploit social divisions it further germinates such phenomena.

Politicisation of social divisions complicates the operation of democratic procedure and gives birth to deeper civilisation or ethnic problems. For instance, Northern Ireland, a region of United Kingdom, has been the place of violent and bitter ethno-political conflict. The population of this region is divided into two major sects - 53% Protestants and 44% Catholics. The Nationalist Party represented the Catholics who demanded that Northern Ireland should be unified with the Republic of Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country. On the other hand, the Protestants were represented by Unionists who wanted to remain with the UK, which was predominantly protestant. This resulted in a battle between the between Unionists and Nationalists and between the security forces of the UK and the Irish nationalists. It led to the deaths of thousands of civilians, militants and security personnel. In 1998, the UK government and the Nationalists negotiated peace and agreed upon a peace treaty.  However, the erstwhile nation of Yugoslavia could not follow Ireland’s example. The political competition among the religious and ethnic groupings within that country led to its disintegration into six independent nations.