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ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews
13 Religion and Society
13.1 Sociology of Religion
Jharta, Mohan and Sneh: Religious Conversion of Dalits from
Hinduism to Christianity: A Sociological Perspective. Guru Nanak
Journal of Sociology 28, 1 & 2 (2007): 97-110.
The second largest democratic country in the world, India is a secular
nation where different religious groups have co-existed for centuries
and the right to freedom of religion is provided in the Constitution.
Since the Hindu religion is based in the caste system and the practice
of untouchability, oppressed castes from the Hindu fold have always
moved out of its fold in search of a religion which might give them
security and better social status, embracing Islam, Buddhism, Jainism
and Sikhism, and also Christianity.
While conversion to Christianity is observed to have brought
about some changes in the social status of Dalit Christians, the author
argues that there has not been much change in their economic status,
and they remain economically more or less on par with their nonconverted Scheduled Caste brethren. The author therefore surmises
that Dalits are embracing Christianity in order to improve their social
status, and that it is not religion but the caste factor that provokes
the decision to convert. While the government has provided many
facilities to Dalits for their welfare and social uplift, they continue
to be victims of caste atrocities by people of the higher castes. In
conclusion the authors suggest that further efforts are required by
the government and the upper castes to assure Dalits of a respected
and dignified status in society, and thereby to retain them within
the folds of the Hindu community.
Madan, T.N.: One From Many: Explorations in the Anthropology
of Islam. The Eastern Anthropologist 60, 1 (2007): 1-25.
The author contends that Islam is a social reality which resides in
the dialectic of a particular Qur’anic tradition and a ‘lived’ tradition.
For the same reason an anthropological study of its communities
requires that the communities be studied from within their historical,
regional, cultural, and linguistic settings. To make an impact Islam
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has had to become ‘malleable’, ‘multivocal’ and ‘syncretistic’, as
Clifford Geertz has shown with examples from Indonesia, Morocco
and also the Philippines.
Following a discussion of the history of Islam and its early
development under the Prophet, the author then explores its spread
all over South Asia and into Bangladesh, Bengal and Kashmir during
the medieval period as a result of both coercive conversion as well
as the appeal of Islam’s egalitarian social order and tolerant message,
etc. The rise and growth of Islam in these regions have been
influenced to a large extent by the geographical, linguistic and
political context of the local Muslims. The author contends that the
fundamental issue for the anthropology of Islam in India is the nature
of the relationship of a single scriptural Islam and a variety of lived
Islams.
The author then discusses the various theoretical positions
adopted by anthropologists studying Indian Islam, for instance, the
equilibrium model, gradient model, cyclical model, syncretistic
model, linear progression, oscillation, etc. He urges the need to go
beyond these models and recommends a model of ‘hierarchy’ such
as has been propounded by Louis Dumont, whereby lived Islam
and scriptural Islam can be seen to exist in a dialectic relation.
Marsden, Magnus: Islam, Political Authority and Emotion in
Northern Pakistan. Contributions to Indian Sociology 41, 1 (2007):
41-80.
In this article, based on fieldwork in Northern Pakistan, Magnus
Marsden explores local manifestations of ‘Islamism’ in the one-time
princely kingdom of Chitral. Chitral’s former princely family
continues to exert significant political influence in the region even
today, and court-derived forms of status distinction are of central
importance in Chitrali social life, along with newer expressions of
class difference. On the other hand, many Chitrali ‘men of piety’
(dashmanan) are critical about the continued powers of the princes,
and claim that only they can deliver ‘simple’ Chitralis from the unIslamic legacies of their feudal past.
Despite the recent political successes of Islamist parties in their
region, Chitralis, according to the author, continue to hold a very
wide range of opinions concerning the proper relationship between
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religion and politics. This is reflected in the array of different types
of Muslim lifestyles they lead. Chitrali conceptions of the Muslim
faith are rooted in local or vernacular traditions, and their
commitment to the Islamising messages of the region’s mullahs is a
complex and deeply contested dimension of life in the region today.
Chitrali Muslims reflect upon and engage with the Islamising
messages of the dashmanan in multidimensional ways that are not
defined instrumentally by the region’s shifting status hierarchy
alone. In particular, the vocal styles of Chitral’s politically active
dashmanan are widely said by Chitrali Muslims to reflect their
animalistic and unrefined emotional dispositions.
In exploring the ways in which this dynamic and locally
contested theory is deployed by Chitralis to evaluate the behaviour
of the dashmanan, the article challenges the widely held assumption
that electoral support for Islamism in Pakistan today is the inevitable
result of the process of Islamisation over the past twenty years. It
also challenges the idea that this process has gone uncontested or
that it has led to the displacement of so-called ‘local’ forms of Muslim
faith and self-understanding.
Naz, Farhaz: Swaminarayan Movement and Gujarati Diasporic
Identity. Man in India 87, 1 & 2 (2007): 129-36.
The author of this article looks at the varieties of diasporic migration,
depending on the historical circumstances of migration, the relation
of the diasporic communities to the host countries, and the response
of the host countries. The South Asian diaspora has had two distinct
phases: in the first place, forced migration for indentured labour,
and subsequently migration in search of opportunity. Both groups
of migrants are further distinguished by the causes and patterns of
migration, and the historical period of the migration. These
differentiations make the Indian diaspora a complex and
heterogeneous phenomenon.
The author takes as a case study the Gujarati communities spread
over East Africa, the United Kingdom and North America. Though
the groups differ in their migration patterns, histories and
destinations, a common binding force has been the Swaminarayan
Movement, a modern form of Vaishnavite Hinduism formulated in
19th century Gujarat. The author looks specifically at the prominence
of this movement among Britain’s Gujarati immigrants. The
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prestigious Swaminarayan movement circuits the globe.
Membership brings social advantage and attracts many wealthy
followers. It is also a vehicle for Sanskritization. The most important
aspect of the movement is the transmission of tradition through the
global convergence of religious identity with social and cultural
identity, forming a powerful agent for the preservation of Gujarati
ethnic identity. The Swaminarayan cult’s rituals, temples,
organizations and festivals provide for an exclusive Gujarati meeting
place. This probably accounts for its success among the Gujarati
diaspora. Furthermore, its appearance of flexibility without the
compromise of basic values appeals to the youth of the diaspora.
Patel, Sujata: Sociological Study of Religion, Colonial Modernity
and 19th Century Majoritarianism. Economic and Political Weekly 42,
13 (2007): 1089-94.
This article weaves together the 19th century representation of Hindu
majoritarianism with an analysis of earlier and contemporary
writings on the sociology of religion in India. Contemporary South
Asian religious, ethnic, communal and sectarian conflicts are deeply
rooted in the political processes of modernity, underpinned by a
matrix of binaries. These binaries, developed in the nineteenth
century, form the core concepts of the sociological study of religion
in India, fashioning a discourse which is deeply imbricated with
modernity theory. Politically, the creation of majoritarianism or the
idea of the ‘great tradition’ is part of the reaffirmation of tradition
to interrogate the ‘modern’, typical of the era, and the fashioning of
tradition according to ‘upper caste’ perceptions. Thus religion as
tradition naturalized relationships of domination-subordination, and
various inequalities and exclusions.
In short, the writings of indigenous intellectuals created
Hinduism as a majority religion, including all kinds of ideas and
cultural practices, as a ‘great tradition’ and a timeless civilization.
During this process, ideas of India and Hinduism collapsed into
one another, defining the subcontinent by its relationship with
Hinduism. Castes and tribes directly related with Hinduism form
the ‘majority’, while the ‘minorities’ constitute the people practicing
Islam and Christianity. In conclusion the author underlines the
relationship between the set of binaries and the acceptance,
generation and promotion of the process of structural domination.
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She therefore stresses the importance of developing an alternative
sociological language and sociology of religion that will be free from
the language of colonial modernity.
Robinson, Rowena: Marginalization and Violence: Concerns for
India and its Muslims. Social Action 57, 3 (2007): 233-43.
Based on a critical analysis of secondary data and the author’s own
research data on the Indian Muslim community, this paper examines
the issue of the social exclusion and marginalization of Muslims in
India. With regard to literacy and education levels, Indian Muslims
are far below the national average except in some southern and
western states. In consequence, they also have low representation
in formal employment. Focusing on data on employment, income
and position in decision-making bodies, the author observes that a
very high share of Muslim workers are engaged in self-employment,
particularly in urban areas, in the form of street vending and smallscale trading. They have low asset accumulation and lack access to
bank credit, leaving them economically vulnerable and backward.
Muslims are poorly represented in defense and security-related
activities. There are only 36 Muslims in the current Lok Sabha of
545 representatives. Moreover, analysis of the 2001 Census indicates
that Muslims are usually excluded from the available developmental
resources. For instance, villages with a high concentration of
Muslims are not well-connected with ‘pucca’ roads and generally
lack postal and telegraph services, educational infrastructure, and
banking facilities.
In sum, the data show that Muslims experience relatively high
levels of poverty and deprivation, and live in the shadow of
vulnerability. The economic and political marginalization of
Muslims is compounded by evidence of poor and discriminatory
provisioning by the state. Such a situation, the author argues, is
exacerbated by the expectation of recurring communal violence
adversely impacting on this minority group. The author concludes
that the existing marginalization of Indian Muslims and their overall
sense of insecurity need urgent solution. Otherwise, the expanding
gap between Muslims and others will surely create a big hiatus in
the overall development process.
See also Nanda (10.6); Xavier (4.2)