Religion, Politics and Society

We will be discussing a very important and crucial topic which is at the same time a controversy. We won’t be making any emotional takeaways but rather rely on history and facts to substantiate the findings.

I came across a conversation, which triggered this topic in my mind. So I am writing the article in professional style.

We are a divided society, which affects how we live, in return affects how others depend on us and we depend on them. Most of the people including you and I have an identity. It can be our nationality, religion, caste, ethnicity, language, race etc. People do often expect us to vote by our identity, ie, if you are a Christian, people expect you to vote for Kerala Congress if you are a rich Muslim then to Indian Union Muslim League, if you are a privileged upper-caste Hindu, then to BJP and if you don’t have any particular ideology or identity then to Congress, or if you are a labourer or kind of communist follower to CPI-M/CPI and if you are an Ezhava to BJDS etc. In North India, you have Yadavs for SP, Dalits for BSP, etc. The list is endless.

You must have also landed in similar conversation when it comes to inter-caste /inter-religious marriages or even renting your home to people outside your religion. Even when people make random talk and bring in other people’s private issues and link it with identity.

This is a kind of soup, which we have landed into and you can hold your ancestors responsible, for dividing ourselves and fighting amongst ourselves and later it blame it on God. Ofcourse, all these identities in they're sense hasn’t given us any benefit, rather wasted a lot of resources in the fighting. But the true fact still remains, that none of us will change ourselves or change the system, even if we realise it. (So please be ready to waste your time by reading the rest).

Religions may look like an attractive concept, you are placed at the door-step to God, all you have to do is follow all the procedures mentioned without a question to reach to God. But the same person, awaiting salvation after death doesn’t want to die or give up his life. Hypocrisy begins there. You say, that God is everywhere but we will pay any amount to travel to the holiest shrine. Ofcourse no one is stopping you from travelling anywhere but at least not say for the sake of telling anything.

Apart from God and prayers, Religions does play an important role in our lives. Today we have 6 largest religions in the world and plenty of small religions. In the olden days', religions used to be a set of localised practices and traditions. While today religions essentially mean organised structure and hierarchy, but religion as a concept is defined differently by many.

Often people do talk, about the superiority of religions meaning, which religion is superior or which religion is inferior to theirs. Often it will be mixed with politics and society. You actually don’t have to be a political scientist to detect and say that. They will say that they can’t live with another religion, or at least mingle freely because of their culture. This is more or less, related to a psychological problem- Superiority Complex, where you underestimate yourself and claiming others to be superior thus, you play a victim card. If you still believe that we are united or we live in unity and everyone is okay with everyone just rethink. Just look at different matrimony sites or even the matrimonial column in the newspaper, you will clearly understand how divided our society is.

Origin of religions

Even though there isn’t exactly any clue which traces the origin of religions at any point in history, we do know that there are hundreds of local traditions, across Africa, Middle East, South Asia etc. The oldest urban settlement is traced to Damascus which is over 15,000 years old. We did have civilisations like Indus Valley, Harappan, Mayan, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Babylonian which give some idea of the same. The earliest burial was recorded in the Middle east much before these civilisations.

Varanasi is claimed to be around 6000 years old and is the oldest city in the Indian subcontinent, but the origin of modern-day Hinduism is said to have been on the banks of river Indus, in Pakistan from where Persians, Arabs and Europeans call us India/Hindustan. We also have stories of Krishna and Mahabarata which dates 5000 years back, although the exact timeline of events isn't recorded. Over 3000 years ago, Prophet Abraham was born and is a respected figure in the Abrahamic religions.

Abrahamic religions were the first to have an organised structure. The first branch was by default, the Jews, and at 4 BCE, we have the birth of Jesus Christ, splitting it to Christianity and in 500–600 BCE we have the birth of Prophet Mohammed and creation of the caliphate. All three religions had different prophets but a single God (Monotheism).

This was contrary to Dharmic religions, which focus not on a person, but a way of devotion, ie Hinduism. Hinduism(polytheism) was a collection of different practices, and they would love to call themselves as Sanathana Dharma. Even the term Hinduism as religion was coined after Europeans kept foot here. There came more branches to Hinduism, like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. That is why Buddhism spread over to North and East of India, even in those regions which had the control of the Chola empire. We do have other practices like Shinto in Japan and Confucianism in China.

Religion and states

Telling the origin of the religions was essential for the topic, in order to set a basic framework for the story to continue. Politics of today, at least in many democracies and semi-democracies, do have a lot to identity especially religion. India, UK, USA, which does claim to be secular states are a great example of how identity is the main foundation of politics. After all, religion is politics and politics is religion. We will discuss a few case studies, in particular.

There are 96 secular countries in the world. While others are mainly theocratic or have a state religion. That doesn’t mean other religions go unrecognised, but rather the state having an official religion which is the majority religion. Prominent examples are Bhutan, Vatican, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel etc. Pakistan was the only country in the world to be formed on the basis of religion. Nepal, in 2015, declared itself as a secular state, so did Bangladesh in 2010. Turkey which was the main caliphate for centuries became a secular modern country in the 20th century under Ataturk which everyone looks on to.

Religion and Extremism

Often times, we misinterpret extremism and fundamentalism. Fundamentalism means sticking on to fundamentals, while extremism means taking an extremist stance on anything. Often people use it as a synonym for terrorism. Religions, do have three types of followers. The first type is its ardent followers by heart. The second type is moderates where they have a moderate stance when it comes to religion. They make up the majority of the spectrum. While the last portion is called extremist or look for a religious dominance over the others. Extremists often take an oppressing or a violent stance. This is in contrary true followers who may claim their religion is peaceful.

On the other hand, moderates are those, people who may like to see religious dominance created by the extremists and give silent claps at their homes but they themselves won’t make the effort. For eg, their millions who want to see India as a Hindu Rastra, but because they are moderates, and they won’t themselves take weapons in their hands but did clap when Babri Masjid was demolished or even during Sabarimala protests. The same happened during 9/11 where hundreds of moderates claimed revenge against the Americans by Muslims, even though they weren’t involved. We can also say that these moderates who didn’t do anything to prevent the genocide of Jews in Nazi Germany.

How religions affect the politics of today?

We can see the large anger against Minorities today across the globe. We can divide the stream into various sections and analyse why is it so?

Theocracy is a style of Governance where religious principles are the basis for the nation’s policies and laws. This doesn’t necessarily mean that one religion is given more support. For example, Sharia is a law and most of the Muslims itself has an objection to it because it will hurt their freedom and how they live.

World Wars and Globalisation, forced people to migrate across borders. Borders are artificial. But people’s mindset is closed within borders. Nationalist ideas swept across Europe and reached to various colonies and started to fight for independence, creating a twisted nationalism. This ensured that no country had 100% population of the same descendants. This is also why Israel was formed, in its homeland, evicting Palestinian Arabs.

Nationalism can be on the basis of ethnicity like in Africa, race in the USA, language in Europe and colonial fighting in Asia. Since then the majority usually dominates the political sphere, and with wealth and power with the majority, it's often misused. Post-1979, massive anger against the secular puppet Shah of Iran, it turned into the Islamic Republic. Same happened in 1990 when communist South Yemen, merged with Islamic North Yemen. Both countries had their landscape changed totally.

Also read

In India, the demolition of Babri Masjid and with Mandir Masjid politics, we have BJP leading in the row. This comes amidst the fact that Hindumasabha wanted India to be a Hindu rastra after partition. The same time also had the relevance when Kashmir issue was at a peak, with the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley. A sense of majoritarian nationalism grew within the population. This nationalistic feeling was reinstated in 2014 and later in 2019. You could see that effect in CAA and Abrogation of Article 370. BJP is now the primary force in the country.

The 9/11 incident nearly created a sense of fear and anger amongst the local population of the US. Out of which 9 of the attackers were Saudi citizens, which happened to be the ally of the USA. Post-Syrian Arab Spring and Rise of ISIS in Iraq, refugees started moving to Europe, and North America, spurting nationalist sentiments across, Europe including protecting local culture and closing border. This period was known as the rise of Islamophobia across Europe. This led to Brexit after the leaders of the conservative party used social media to manipulate people’s minds calling for Britain to be independent so that the EU cannot impose refugee policy on it.

This is the same strategy Trump has been using. He is anti-immigrant and anti-minority. Bashing minorities across the globe is now a fashion. Formation of vote banks, based on arithmetics has strengthened the right-wing across the globe. Now, BJP in India is amassing Hindu votes cutting across the caste-based lines. It looks to shed its high caste image by calling for a religious unity rather than a caste-based division.

Religion knowingly or unknowingly is responsible for changes in politics whether it's right or left. Just see a scenario when you are the only person to vote for good governance and you will be singled out when all your family members will vote on the basis of religion. We saw it in 2019 elections when people voted out the ruling party of Kerala on the basis of religion and ignored governance and welfare as a parameter for voting.

We have also seen, how Muslims were blamed for the Tabliqui Jamaat community spread of Covid-19 and also seen how the death of an elephant was linked to the religion of the population of the neighbouring district.

Should religion be blamed for acts of extremism or should individuals be?

This is an important question, why should the religions be blamed for the crimes in the name of religion. Rather we can say it’s a misuse or misinterpretation. Genocide, riots, ethnic cleansing, honour killings, lynchings, terrorist activities all happen in the name of religions. We can see what happened to millions of Jews, the Bosnian genocide, religious persecutions across different countries and all. Even take the example of ISIS, where millions were displaced and killed. Everyone blamed the Muslims, but even 99% killed by ISIS were in their own country of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Even the coalition fighting the ISIS are their respective governments. So, how can a person killed by the terrorist group, under the name of his own religion take the responsibility? Is this wrath of God?

Possibly no, it is not the wrath of God. But the above-mentioned issue does exist with many of the governments and it has brought frictions between various countries. As per the problem, holding the individual or the group is logical and practical. We can’t stamp the entire community for the same.

It will really be good if laws are made against spreading hate and religious extremism. All the religious heads must speak out against this and take actions, like throwing out of their communities. Although this rarely happens due to the involvement of moderates and political powers. Political parties often include such members in their party to boost its image amongst the hardliners. Take the example of Pragya Singh Thakur and Sakshi Maharaj of BJP, who despite making multiple hate speeches is protected by the party. The LET of Pakistan is itself a political party. AAP MLA Tahir Hussein was arrested for inciting violence in Delhi. Few of the party members of various parties across the world have criminal charges against them and are involved in multiple including serious charges like hate speech and rioting.

Political Atheism

When we take this topic, most the atheists will say, we don’t do this. But this is a state policy just like Theocracy. The state establishes itself as an atheist or irreligious state. The best example is China. The problem is neither with being religious or irreligious country. But in the name of spreading atheism, the country is known to enforce atheism on Buddhists of Tibet and Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang. Both these provinces are autonomous for a surprise. Both these provinces are well known for separatist movements just like Kashmir. Unlike Kashmir and Ladakh, this is not an ignored province without development. The possibilities of these integrated will happen soon, as China is automatically trying to bring Hong Kong under its control. China is developing multiple roadways and railways in the border areas to appease the local population and also to facilitate trade and movement between the neighbours.

Even though Article 36 of the Chinese constitution gives religious freedom, but only very few religions are recognised and few organisations are allowed to operate.

How do we change everything?

Some of you will say we need to vouch for a religiously free society after reading until now. But just think for yourself, Atheist or Irreligious people make just a small percentage of the population on Earth. Majority of the population do follow a religion and are true believers, we cannot topple it overnight, it will at least for many decades but religion is equally strong to pull the advantage to its side.

Promoting Secularism

Just like many countries in Europe changed from fanatic religious powers to rational secular powers, such a moment need to take place across the world especially in Asia and Africa. We need to do away with the obsession of religion and fanaticism.

Secularism, which stands for the separation of the Church and the State should be the moto everyone must follow. Religion should be a personal/individual choice. No discrimination should be allowed on the basis of religion.

Fight religious extremism

Understand that the aim is to eliminate extremism and the enemy is people who make hate speeches and violence. We should not hurt any people’s personal choice of following his/her religion and blame them. We should keep religions at minimum, ie it should not affect our work, the way we interact with others and most importantly, keep it away from politics and elections.

Violence should not be dealt with violence but rather, we must use tactics.

Boycott parties who tie-up with religions and spread venom

This is where we had previously discussed superior and inferior religions. This is what political parties who have religion as a base aim for. So just don’t vote for them.

Making people aware and changing yourself

There is no way this, society is going to change unless you start changing yourself. You should also try to make others aware and spread positive information instead of hate. Spread awareness and keep people away from being negatively affected by fanatism.

Minority protection

Religious and ethnic minorities need protection, to safeguard themselves from the tyranny of the majority. Legal framework and equal representation are essential.

Religions changing their age-old practices and accepting criticisms

No organisation or group can change unless they accept criticism. It is time to adopt new changes and accommodate new practices and do away with archaic and useless rituals. Half-the problems will be solved when religions themselves reform and that is the biggest hurdle.

Also read- Should rituals to be safeguarded or neglected?

The topic is so broad that it is impossible to include everything but tried maximum to stick to the mandate.

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