Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India - Literature review Example

Religious Nationalism in India Samson Varghese Globalization and Religious Nationalism in India (A review of the book "Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India" by Peter van der Veer) Globalization is a concept in which all the people in the whole world are unified into a single society and functions together for growth and development. The whole world irrespective of social, economical, political, cultural, regional or religious differences are bringing under the shade of one umbrella is the main objective of globalization. Though the objectives of globalization are widely accepted, because of some constraints in the form of religious nationalism, terrorism, political instability etc prevent some countries from exploiting the complete possibilities of globalization Religious nationalism in India and how it affects the economic development of India has been well portrayed in the book "Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India" by Peter Van der Veer. The author has considered many factors such as religious movements, discourses and practices, which retard the progress of globalization process in India which are untouched by others so far. The book extensively reviewed the structure of major Indian religions Hindu and Muslim identities in India. The Ayodhya issue ( Babri Masjid demolition by Hindu fundamentalists) which contributed immensely to the current conflicts between the Hindus and Muslims in India. The author argues that larger frameworks of locality were already available in India Religious Nationalism in India 2 before the colonial era and the religious nationalism has builds on such earlier frameworks. The rituals of the larger community, Hindu have been incorporated to religious nationalism in this book. He claims that the transnational experiences reinforce the nationalists and religious identity in India. He attributes the Ayodhya issue as a conscious, planned action by religious and political movement. The interpretations of history in favour of either community by the fundamentalists enlarged the Hindu Muslim conflicts further. The author argues that religious nationalism combines anti-historical feature of religious discourse with an empiricist search for “facts” that has been highly influenced by orientalism, in this book. In this book Van der Veer looks, from a comparative perspective, at the development of Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim religious communities. Religious nationalism in the past 2 centuries builds on the forms of religious identities. This book also discusses the features and implications of the languages Hindi and Urdu used by Hindus and Muslims. The author tries to relate these languages to sacred languages Sanskrit used by the Hindus and Arabic used by Muslims. The book tries to connect “the sacredness of the languages to religious nationalism. The Indian people with different class backgrounds understand rituals as a political process. In the first chapter of the book, the author suggests that the Muslims in India are considered as a foreign element in Indian culture. He argues that the majority Hindus want to nationalize their culture irrespective of the secular rights offered by the Indian constitution. The author tries to link the Indian politics with the sacred places of various religions. The author believes that though modernization process has been successfully Religious Nationalism in India 3 implemented in India, secularization process has still a long way to go in India. The first chapter also describes the connection between religion and Indian politics. “Hindu reformers like Dayananda and Vivekananda harped on the theme of decline and called for revitalization of ancient religion. (pg 20) The author reminding the Hidndu fundamentalists about their leaders views about religion. Hindu reformers like Vivekananda and Dayananda called the Hindu community to go back to the beliefs of ancient Hindu religion which clearly consider all others as brothers and sisters irrespective of religious differences. The famous Hindu God “Shabarimala Ayyappan” believed to have a Muslim friend “Vaavaru Swamy” So the reformers urged the Hindu community to go back to the basics of their religion. “Indian dreams of the nation always take religion as one of the main aspects of national identity”. (pg 23) Majority of the Indian people belongs to the Hindu religion while Muslims are the second largest religion in India. Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsee, Jainism etc are some other religions in India. As per the Indian constitution, India is a secular state and all the religions in India have the right in believing and spreading their religion. The compulsory implementation of religious beliefs is prohibited. The author believes that religion plays a vital role in politics and national identity. He indirectly pointing that most of the political works in India are religion based. The Indian society is divided with so many caste and religions and hence state’s ability to resolve social problems are by far less compared to other societies where a single religion or case exists. The first chapter also discusses economic growth in terms Religious Nationalism in India 4 of homogeneous culture. This chapter also explains the connection between agrarian world with nationalism, individualism and secularism. Nationalism is a child of colonialism. The Indian society is traditionally characterized by a religious ideology which contributes a political economic domain. “In communalism it is the common religion that is imagined as the basis of group identity; in nationalism it is a common ethnic culture that is imagined. (pg22)” Nationalism accepts cultural pluralism and equality among different religious communities within the nation while religious nationalism sees the nation as the community of co-religionists. Indian dreams of the nation always take religion as one of the main aspects of national identity. In Indian state Kerala, recently, the government of Kerala has revised the school curriculum, with some modifications about the belief in religion. The syllabus actually intended to teach the students about the worthlessness of religion or dangers of belief in religion. The Muslims and Christians criticized. Nationalism can be attributed to any people residing in a country irrespective the religion or community whereas communalism is a bi product of religion. The author is pointing out the difference between communalism and nationalism through this definition. Any kind of communalism can be considered as a result of fundamentalism. The Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists in India led by some communal forces are really a threat to the national integration through globalization. Another important point discussed in this chapter is the orientalism. The author explains that the orientalists saw India as an ancient Hindu civilization, in which Religious Nationalism in India 5 Brahmanical authority was paramount. They believe that Hindu and western civilization has the same Indo European roots, and the study of Hindu Vedas such as “Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva” was crucial in understanding western civilization. The orientalists believe that the ancient Muslim rule in India has caused the decline of Hindu civilization in India and they believe that only they can protect the Hindu civilization from further r decline. The author clearly describes the BJP (Bharathiya Janatha Party) and VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishat), as the so called orientalists because of their strong orientation towards Hindu doctrines and civilization. The author ridicules their attitudes as the saviors of India. He argues that such orientalism will help only to increase the fundamentalism. Muslims are also not an exception. Every action of BJP and VHP is watched with suspicion by the Muslims in India. They have their own political parties like Muslim League, PDP (People’s Democratic Party) etc to protect their rights. These parties are oriented towards the Muslim community just like the BJP and VHP oriented towards Hindus. The second chapter focuses more on the religious communities and general pattern patters in formation of Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities and some important differences. This chapter divided into two parts; the history of the evolution of religious organization and the ROLE OF REFORM movements in the production of religious nationalism The Muslim conversion and expansion is always a debated topic in India. The Hindus believe that the Muslims trying to expand their religion in India by utilizing some religious beliefs in favour of them. “Islam allows men to have more than one wife. This Religious Nationalism in India 6 myth, which links religion to sexuality and politics in a very suggestive way” (pg 27) In India, lot of discussions is going on about the multi wife system in Muslim community. As per the Muslim shari-at law, the Muslim men are free to have more than one wife. In all the other religions, single wife system is advocated to safeguard the women from exploitations. The Hindus believe that the multi wife system and mass conversion of Hindus by other religions causes demographic imbalances in India. The recent massacres against the Christians in one of the Indian state Orissa by Hindu fundamentalist VHP is an example of their agitations against controversial mass conversion. They believe that Muslim community is targeting expansion of Muslim religion in India, mostly by multi wife system while Christians spreading their wings through forced mass conversion of Hindus. They claim that the rate of increase of Muslims in India is extremely high compared to other religions because of the multi wife system. The Hindu leaders argue that a common civil code is necessary for the people of India irrespective of their religion or belief. They believe that such a law will avoid the segregation and discriminations based on religion. “Hinduism can be seen, very much like Islam, as a not fully integrated family of Ideas and practices spread by ascetics and priestly families over an enormous region inhabited by very different populations. Although there is no churchlike organization, there are long-term processes of centralization and homogenization. These parallel processes remained, however, largely confined to particular regions and particular peoples until the present century.” (Pg 46) The author explains the similarities of Hindu and Muslim religion through these words. The process of centralization and Religious Nationalism in India 7 homogenization can be visible in both the community as per the author. Such processes were confined to certain regions until the present century; but it is spreading towards the entire community; the author assumes. “Middle class is a key player in religious reform” (pg.57) The author believes that as in every political or economical processes, the middle class is the key in reformations of religions as well. Middle class can make or break the religious reformation processes because of their majority in every religion. The author critically explains the functioning of RSS group in (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak) Hindu religion, Jama’at-i-Islami in Muslim religion and the Bhindranwale group in Sikh religion. The author believes that because of their extremism, they manifest some of the tendencies within mainstream religious nationalism most clearly, which also explains their relative success” In the third chapter, the author concentrates more on the globalization aspects in terms of religion. He argues that growing importance of Hindi as language for Hindus and Urdu as language for Muslims is also an instance of the use of language to create religious nations. He explains that the Hindi language is linked with Hindu holy language Sanskrit while Urdu is connected with Muslim holy language Arabic. The author says that literacy is the cause of transition from tradition to modern. Restricted literacy in some religions like Muslims and Hindus actually retard the modernization or globalization process. This chapter also discusses the relationship between religious nationalism and religious modes of communication. Religious nationalism equates the religious community with the nation and thus builds on a previously constructed religious identity. While the development of a religious organization is crucial for the construction of Religious Nationalism in India 8 religious communities, the decisive factor remains the ritual communication of identity. The construction of a person, with specific feelings of anger, desire, love, and shame, depends on discourse in public space as per the author. “In my view it is hardly possible to give a precise account of the change in the symbolic content of pilgrimage over a period of time, since this would entail arranging a series of essential meanings in a historical succession. However, it is possible to delineate changes in the arena in which certain interpretations are made authoritative. The search for essential meanings is in that way replaced by a description and analysis of the social construction of meanings over time” (pg 82) Pilgrimage and rituals are part of a religion. The author in his opinion explains that the change in attitudes of pilgrimage cannot be evaluated properly. But he believes that it is possible to explain changes in some authoritative interpretations about pilgrimage. Since ritual creates domination, powerful groups and movements try to seize control over it and use it for their purposes. This explains the continuous struggle over sites of ritual communication, be they Sufi shrines, Sikh gurdwaras , or Hindu temples. “Ritual can thus be seen as a form of communication through which a person discovers his identity and the significance of his actions” (pg. 84) The nation is presented as an extension of the self and nationalism as part of religion dealing with the shame and honor, the illness and death of the person. (pg. 84)The communal forces believe that their religion should be considered as the basis for group identity. They wanted to have each process of national integration, accompanied by the doctrines of their community alone. But nationalism has nothing to Religious Nationalism in India 9 do with religion. Nationalism represents a common cultural or regional group rather than a religion. Nationalism should be a spirit of the whole people in a country rather than a religion. Connecting the Hinduism with the Indian nationalism, may prevent India from the effective utilization of globalization policies. The author succeeded beautifully portraying nationalism and its implications with religion in this chapter. In the fourth chapter the author tries to connect nationalism with territories. Many territories form a country. Territory often represents a group of people with same ideas, opinion and culture. Nationalism represents the sum total of such different territories as per the author. The author explains Mosques, temples, and gurdwaras as central symbols of pride and cultural resistance against racist denigration. The spreading of religion takes place in India and also across the world through migration. The migration causes lot of discrimination. In Mumbai, the Shiv sena group hate the immense migration of other people from other states to Mumbai. They have declared an indirect war against such migrants. Such discriminations are well explained in this chapter. The chapter ended with discussion about globalization and how colonialism orientalism and modernity relate to globalization. He argues that globalization has succeeded in exposing cultural and historical differences between religions. He explains that globalization increased the public political debate which focused not only on globalization and liberalization but religious nationalism as well. The author believes that current media focuses only the minority group extremisms and ignoring separate nationalisms. The media doesn’t cover the part of religious nationalism affected and influenced in broader terms of globalization. The Religious Nationalism in India 10 recent terrorist attack on Mumbai can be seen as the best example for this. Most of the media reported it as the terrorist attack by the Pak controlled terrorist groups in order to destabilize the Indian economy. Most of the reports focused much on the terrorists targeting foreigners like Jews, and Americans in the Mumbai attacks. The media failed to bring the religious nationalism factors involved in the attack. The attack has its causes related to Kashmir problem as well. The Muslims believe that the Kashmiri people are struggling under the tight control of Indian military forces there. So the Mumbai attack has planned to take revenge for that also. Many movements share a common logical party embedded with enlightenment thinking. But most of the violent movements do not appear naturally. The Mumbai attack is not naturally occurred, but it is politically created. . “The VHP tries to create modern Hinduism as the national religion in India (p.132) Modern Hinduism, as defined by the VHP, is the religion of the Indian nation”. (p. 134) Even the Hindu “Gurus” like Shankaracharyas have started to join the modern Hinduism movements. As per the VHP leaders, India should be considered as a Hindu country and Hindu doctrines should be given prominence in every aspects of the country development. The Hindus believe in more than one God unlike other religions who believe in a single God. They believe that the spreading of single God doctrine is against the beliefs of their religion and hence such thoughts should not be encouraged. The recent massacres at Indian state Orissa against the Christians by the VHP are the best example of the clash between beliefs. The social activities conducted by the Christian organizations in Orissa are watched with suspicious eyes by the VHP. They Religious Nationalism in India 11 believed that such activities have some hidden agenda like mass conversion of the backward Hindus into Christians. They wanted to stop all the reservations to other communities. Such thoughts are always against the true spirit of globalization. In chapter 5, the author explains that Modernization and development are thus intimately connected to the competition between capitalism and communism. He argues that Hinduism devalues history but does not necessarily lack historical awareness. The author mentions the Ayodhya issue here. The Muslim mosque Babri Majid has been demolished by the Hindu fundamentalists claiming that the place where the mosque situated was the birth place of their god Raman. They argued that the earlier Muslim rulers purposefully, created the mosque using their power. Actually most of the terrorist attacks in India by the Muslim groups started from here. The Muslims believe that the intrusion of their sacred place avoiding all historical data is the result of Hindu dominating mentality of the Hindus in India. The Muslims suspect that more attacks and more claims may arise in future also. So for self defence they also started to engage in terrorist activities in India. The final Chapter focuses to the politics of language in textual and theatrical performance. It also deals with changing relation between languages of sacred communication and those of profane communication. This chapter talk about nationalisation of language. In a multi linguistic state like India, the author believes that language is the main aspect of national identity. The Keralites talk Malayalam, The Tamil Nadu people talk Tami, the Goan people talk Kongan, The Orissa people talk Oriya, the Assam people talk Assamees, and the Sikh people talk Punjabi languages. Religious Nationalism in India 12 India consist of so many states with so many languages though Hindi and English considered for the administrative purposes. English plays a continued role in India, rather than being replaced by Hindi, because there is such a great number of strong “sub national” linguistically, historically and culturally unified regions in India. India is a country where over a billion people of different religions and culture staying together. Though there is lot of cultural, regional and linguistic differences, the strong democracy in India, joined the people together in working for a common aim, the economic growth of the country. India is considered as one of the topmost countries in the current century as far as growth rate is considered. In fact it is having the second better economic growth just behind China. Some reports recently suggest that the US secret agency has filed a secret report to President Bush indicating that India will become a super power within 20 years. The book "Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India" by Peter Van der Veer though focuses more on religious nationalism, it explains the connection between globalization and religious nationalism. The book succeeded in bringing out the negative impacts of religious nationalism for exploiting the possibilities of globalization. Religious Nationalism in India 13 References 1. Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India Publisher: University of California Press (February 7, 1994) Accessed on 14/1/09 Read More