Robber's Cove and Ram Janmabhoomi
This write up as submitted as Assignment in the Coursera course “introduction to Psychology” offered by the University. The purpose of the assignment is to test our understanding of a psychological concept taught in the course by applying the principle to world class event. We are to star with link to article describing the event
UP CM Yogi Adityanath visits Ayodhya, says Ram temple issue should be resolved through dialogue
Ayodhya dispute in a nutshell. During the 16th century one of the most brutal Moghul emperor known to India, Babur, destroyed and razed a temple dedicated to Hindu Avatar Rama in his birthplace Ayodhya. Babur destroyed the temple and built a Mosque in its place. List of 1856 Hindu Temples destroyed in India during Moghul empire and mosques built on temple lane can be found here
Over the centuries the Hindus have been trying the reclaim the holiest of their sites and rebuild Ram temple and the Muslims and leftists have been resisting the effort. Finally the disputed structure was pulled down by Hindu Volunteers in the year 1991. This resulted burning of railway Coach occupied by Hindu volunteers by Islamic terrorists, which resulted in the murder of about 60 Hindu Volunteers and subsequent Gujarat riots. The matter is now sub judicial and resolution expected soon through negotiation and moderation.
What is of interest from psychological point of view is the work of Sheriff et al. (1953, 55,61) was seminal in the developmental understanding relating to intergroup hostility and prejudice. At the heart of Sheriff’s theory lies the proposition that intergroup attitudes and behavior will tend to reflect the objective interest of the groups vis-à-vis other groups. Thus, for example in the Ram janmanhoomi/Babri Masjid issue the conflict of interests were obvious; both Hindus and Muslims clashed over area of land over which each claimed ownership.
Sheriff and his associates conducted three famous studies, known as summer camp studies, which were designed to demonstrate systematic changes in behavior of individuals because of changing intergroup relations. The experimenters observed each group through stages of group formation, intergroup conflict, and conflict reduction.
These experiments were landmark study in prejudice and discrimination. Thy marked a paradigm shift. Prejudice and discrimination arise as function of intergroup relationship rather than interpersonal peculiarities. Conflict is generated due to competition for real resources rather than by displacement of aggression. Conflict is reduced by cooperation in order that superordinate goals, jointly valued be the competing groups may be achieved. Intergroup behavior is a collective phenomenon rather than simple summing up of coincidentally similar individual emotions.
The experiment and results were similar the one psychological experiment don in the 50s called Robber’s Cove experiment. 22 children in group of 10 t0 12 from a very similar ethnic background were randomly assigned to two diverse groups. The two groups were given to develop their own group identity and were taught to love their group members and hate the other group members. In the next stage, they were made to compete against each other and started to think each other in nasty and prejudicial and derogatory terms. Now to eliminate the prejudice they were made to work together by creating a common enemy and common challenge. As the ignorance about other group reduced and positive aspects of other group emerged, prejudices and stereotyping decreased.
We see a lot similarities between Robber’s Cove experiment, Sheriff’s experiment on Ram Janmabhoomi conflict and the actual and potential resolution of Ram Janmabhoomi conflict. Here the conflicting groups should realize the importance of holy land for one group, the vested interest of individuals interested promoting conflict based on fundamentalism and false propaganda for personal glorification and profiting from breaking of a nation (These forces may be described as common enemies to be overcome) must be defeated and the common goal of peaceful and Enlightened living needs to be prioritized.
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