Human Needs Theory: A Significant Approach to Manage Ethnic Conflicts in Pakistan

Ethnic conflicts constitute a major source of violence in most of the developing countries of the world. Ethnicity has been the most crucial concept of the modern world. Pakistan being no exception suffers from ethnic conflicts. The ethnic groups have been existing almost in every part of the world and ethnicity itself is not the cause of conflicts. In reality the states are plural societies with many national, sub-national, religious, professional, racial, linguistic and geographic identities. The apparent and pre-dominant cause of conflict among ethnic identities is politico-economic imbalance. For example, the monopolization of power by West Pakistan before 1971 disintegrated Pakistan and lead to the creation of Bangladesh. Ethnic identities come into conflict when their grievances are not addressed properly by the political system. According to various analysts human beings have certain basic and universal needs such as: identity, security, autonomy, recognition, creativity, self-esteem, a sense of affiliation and belongingness. These needs are very important for the growth of an individual and a society. Denial of these needs will become a major reason of violent behavior among individuals. It is essential to avoid violent behavior among individuals that political system has ability to identify those needs which are becoming source of tension and initiate various strategies to accommodate those needs. In this paper researcher will examine different aspects of Human Needs Theory and briefly discuss the root causes of ethnic conflicts and delineate various possible options to resolve ethnic conflicts in Pakistan with special reference of Human Needs Theory.