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Main characteristics of Ethnicity

Ethnicity relates to ascriptive identities like caste, language, religion, region etc.Inequality in terms of sharing power between two ethnic groups' results into conflict.

The ethnicity is socially mobilized and territorially confined. It has numerically sufficient population and is a pool of symbols depicting distinctiveness. It has a reference group in relation to which /whom a sense of relative deprivation is aggregated.

Ethnicity causes ethnic movements after being left out of the developmental process or even being a victim of uneven development.

Ethnicity is manifested in Indian politics not merely due to grass root discontent but is also a creation of vested political interest.

Ethnic groups that use ethnicity to make demands in the political arena for alteration in their status, in their economic well being etc are engaged very often in a form of interest group politics.

The focus of interests of an ethnic group is to get some benefits for itself. The group often uses ethnic criterion like religion, language or caste to mobilize itself to give identity to itself which separates it from other group or groups. Thus delineation of boundary of an ethnic group of community is an important aspect of ethnicity. The nature of identity shifts along with shifts along with changing circumstances and calls for change in boundary or a change in identification.