Britain dividing the society on religious grounds, says Sen

London, July 27 (UNI) Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen said Britain was ''splitting the society'' on the basis of religious identity.

Speaking at the Nehru Centre last evening, he said, ''After enormous success in building an integral society, the British government is now splitting the society by dividing people on the basis of religious identity.'' ''Miniaturisation of human beings and putting them into one identity will not work,'' he asserted.

Challenging the view that people of the world could be partitioned into little boxes in terms of civilisational categories, he drew on history, economics, science, literature and his own memories of difficult as well as easy times on three continents to present an inspiring vision of a world that could be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiralled in recent years toward violence and war.

Speaking on 'Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny,' Prof Sen observed that invasion of Iraq itself was a ''grave mistake.'' He proposed that brutalities are driven as much by confusion as by inescapable hatred.

The discussion was moderated by Dr Tom Bentley, Director of Demos, an independent think-tank.

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