The Role of Religion in the Chinese and Indian Societies - Research Paper Example

The people within a society collectively act and share the same interests (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2009). With this brief definition on hand, it can be inferred that societies differ from each other. In line with this, this paper will identify the differences and similarities of the Indian society from the Chinese society in terms of their religious beliefs, and on how these differences affect their standard of living and their employment. Indian and Chinese Society Geographically speaking, the geographic unity of the Indian society is bounded by the strong cultural roots of the Indians.

The variety of culture and traditions of the different groups in the Indian society has become one of the strong bonds of the people, which are greatly depicted in their literature. The Indian society had transitioned from Sanskrit to a Secular society; however, this did not alter its unity. An Indian household has a natural familial relationship between parents and children. Endogamy is also practiced within the family in order to maintain bloodlines within royal families. With this on hand, hypergamy also exists in the Indian society, such as in the case of the caste Indian system.

 Aside from hypergamy, the Indian households also practice disintegration, which allows the family to be independent from one another. Aside from this, two bases of feudalism are also presented in India including the fiefs and the benefices. On the other hand, the basic characteristic of a Chinese society is also feudal. Moreover, it has buried the social system; however, the Chinese society still maintained some of the characteristics of a social system in order to influence and regularize the behavior of the Chinese.

In summary, the typical Chinese can be considered as a dual, closed, integrated, and stable society (Sharma, 2004; Peilin, 2012). The Effects of Religion in the Indian and Chinese Society In relation to religious beliefs, the Indian society also tolerates different religious sects due to the wide array of different groups in India. The Indian society in terms of religion is considered as one of the Asian societies that allows a free competition among religious sects. Also, the Hindu religion believes in the model of promise in two forms.

The first is the incarnation that can be improved by following the specific norms, and the second is the struggle for life that can only be ended through rebirth. Lastly, the Hindu religion believes in contemplation and salvation. In this manner, salvation can be achieved through the grace and forgiveness of the saviors who are alive. They believe of the soteriology or the act of salvation from the outside, which can be achieved through the forgiveness of faith (Marx Weber, as cited in Madan, 1979).

In relation to the standard of living and employment, the Indian society practices the caste system, which is one of the core characteristics of the Hindu region. One of the bases of employment in the Indian society is a religion that creates a line between the oppressed, the Dalits or the untouchables, and the rich. With the differences and the heterogeneous of the employees in India, there is a difficulty in organizing unions and parties for the variety of employees. Also, their jobs are often affected due to the fatalistic beliefs in destiny and other superstitious beliefs enveloping their religion (Prakashan, 2008).

Similar to the Indian society, the Chinese society allows the freedom to choose one's religious preference. On the other hand, in Chinese society, religious beliefs do not prohibit or affect their employment as stated and implemented in their law. There are governmental sanctions and punishments that can be given to employers who use religion as a basis when hiring or