 In this session, we are going to discuss polarization and conflict. It is very obvious reality that every society face conflicts on the basis of polarization. So firstly, we have to discuss that what is polarization. Polarization is the process that causes neutral parties to take sides in a conflict. If someone wants to or does not want to, sometimes someone has to take sides of a party or perspective. This is the social reality. So it also causes individuals on either side of the conflict to take increasingly extreme positions that are more and more opposed to each other. Why is there a conflict? Polarization means that there is a division. People are taking sides of a party or taking sides. But in conflict, polarization then converts when there is a very extreme division. That is, there is a compromise between the two. So then polarization converts into the conflict. So political polarization thus fuels a perception of society as a struggle between us versus them and may yield high levels of mutual conflicts between ideologically opposing groups. For example, liberal versus conservatives in the US or in the West. Then political polarization can manifest itself in a various ways. And the political polarization is not only in the developing world. We can see that the developed world, the political world, sometimes on the basis of ideological affiliations, they divide themselves. So state as a major concept is under discussion. And definitely the polarization and conflict automatically influence state and the institutions also. So the macro sociologists, they have the important perspective that historically if they may evaluate, then there are interstate-interstate conflicts. There are many historical evidences that people on the basis of their loyalties, people on the basis of their perceptions towards leaders or their ideologies, historically they also divide. So the political scientist also played a pivotal role in bringing the state back. So we can observe that political scientists have the perception that the state is important and if there is some issue, if there is some conflict, but the central force to collect all the groups where people will be united, what is that force? It is the state. The state by force also efforts to end the conflicts of many people. Sometimes people even threaten the state on the basis of their own interests and on the basis of the nature of their conflicts. So we can say that in the modern global society, when the world is also experiencing the rise of civil societies, now that typical state is not happening. Now everywhere in the world, whether it is a developed world or a developing world, civil society is rising. What does civil society mean? It means that those people who voluntarily present themselves, wherever there are issues, wherever there is a problem, they have to handle those issues and raise their voices on them. We can say that polarization is the reality because everyone has his or her liking, disliking. Now what can be the basis of liking and disliking? Sometimes it can be the basis of affiliation. Sometimes we think that we are right and the other is wrong. Similarly, the other thinks that he or she is right and we are wrong. So this fight between us and you, and it is present in every society. The developed world has linked it with many factors. In which there is so much city, there is language. And the developed world has told it that there is an ideological debate, there is a liberal debate, there is a conservative debate. And that is why there is a division in our society. But this division, when there is a conflict, then many other forces have to be united and active to settle down the situation.