Sociology · Ch 5 — The Challenges of Cultural Diversity
Religion-related Issues and Identities
Religion-related Issues and Identities
Religion-related Issues and Identities
Of all the dimensions of cultural diversity, religion-based identities have proved to be the most contentious. These issues can be broadly divided into two related sets: the secularism–communalism set, and the minority–majority set.
Questions of secularism and communalism are about the state's relationship to religion and to political groupings that invoke religion as their primary identity. Questions about minorities and majorities involve decisions on how the state is to treat different religious, ethnic or other communities that are unequal in terms of numbers and/or power — including social, economic and political power.
Minority Rights and Nation Building
Indian nationalism was marked by an inclusive and democratic vision. It was inclusive because it recognised diversity and plurality. It was democratic because it sought to do away with discrimination and exclusion and bring forth a just and equitable society. The term 'people' was never seen in exclusive terms, as referring to any specific group defined by religion, ethnicity, race or caste. Ideas of humanism influenced Indian nationalists, and leading figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore extensively commented on the ugly aspects of exclusive nationalism.
Tagore warned that exclusive nationalism teaches people to foster hatred, manufacture half-truths in history, and misrepresent other races. He argued that the hurt inflicted upon other races will infect the aggressor, and that enmities sown around one's home will not be a wall of protection forever.
To be effective, the ideas of inclusive nationalism had to be built into the Constitution. There is a very strong tendency for the dominant group to assume that their culture, language or religion is synonymous with the nation-state. For a strong and democratic nation, special constitutional provisions are required to ensure the rights of all groups and those of minority groups in particular.
The Sociological Meaning of Minority
The notion of minority groups is widely used in sociology and is more than a merely numerical distinction — it usually involves some sense of relative disadvantage. Privileged minorities such as extremely wealthy people are not usually referred to as minorities; if they are, the term is qualified, as in 'privileged minority'. When minority is used without qualification, it generally implies a relatively small but also disadvantaged group.
The sociological sense of minority also implies that the members form a collectivity — they have a strong sense of group solidarity, a feeling of togetherness and belonging. This is linked to disadvantage because the experience of being subjected to prejudice and discrimination usually heightens feelings of intra-group loyalty and interests. Thus, groups that may be minorities in a statistical sense, such as people who are left-handed or people born on 29th February, are not minorities in the sociological sense because they do not form a collectivity.
It is possible to have anomalous instances where a minority group is disadvantaged in one sense but not in another. For example, religious minorities like the Parsis or Sikhs may be relatively well-off economically, but they may still be disadvantaged in a cultural sense because of their small numbers relative to the overwhelming majority of Hindus. Religious or cultural minorities need special protection because of the demographic dominance of the majority.
Religious Demographics of India (2011 Census)
| Religious Group | Population (millions) | Percentage of Total Population | Key Distribution Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hindus | 966 | 80.0% | Not homogenous; divided by caste |
| Muslims | 172 | 14.2% | Majority in Jammu & Kashmir; sizeable pockets in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan |
| Christians | 27.8 | 2.3% | Majority in Nagaland (88%), Mizoram (87%), Meghalaya (74%); sizeable in Goa (25%), Kerala (18.4%) |
| Sikhs | 21 | 1.7% | Concentrated in Punjab (majority at 58%) |
| Buddhists | 8 | 0.7% | Highest in Sikkim (27%), Arunachal Pradesh (12%); Maharashtra has highest share among larger states (6%) |
| Jains | 4.5 | 0.4% | Highest concentrations in Maharashtra (1.3%), Delhi and Gujarat (nearly 1% each) |
| Other Religions and Persuasions | under 8 | 0.7% | — |
The Hindu population is four times larger than the combined population of all other minority religions, and about six times larger than the largest minority group, the Muslims. However, this can be misleading because Hindus are not a homogenous group and are divided by caste — as indeed are all the other major religions, albeit to different extent.
Constitutional Safeguards for Minorities
In the long years of struggle against British colonialism, Indian nationalists understood the imperative need to recognise and respect India's diversity. 'Unity in diversity' became a shorthand to capture the plural and diverse nature of Indian society. Discussions on minority and cultural rights marked many deliberations of the Indian National Congress and found final expression in the Indian Constitution.
The makers of the Indian Constitution were aware that a strong and united nation could be built only when all sections of people had the freedom to practise their religion, and to develop their culture and language. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar made this point clear in the Constituent Assembly.
Ambedkar warned that minorities are an explosive force which, if it erupts, can blow up the whole fabric of the state. He noted that minorities in India had agreed to place their existence in the hands of the majority — unlike the Protestant minority in Ireland which refused to be ruled by the Catholic majority.
Key Constitutional Provisions:
- Article 29(1): Any section of citizens residing in India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
- Article 29(2): No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
- Article 30(1): All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- Article 30(2): The State shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.
In the last three decades, we have witnessed how non-recognition of the rights of different groups can have grave implications for national unity. One of the key issues that led to the formation of Bangladesh was the unwillingness of the Pakistani state to recognise the cultural and linguistic rights of the people of Bangladesh. One of the many contentious issues that formed the backdrop of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka was the imposition of Sinhalese as a national language. Any forcible imposition of a language or religion on any group of people in India weakens national unity, which is based upon a recognition of differences.
Minorities Exist Everywhere
Minorities exist everywhere, not just in India. In most nation-states, there tends to be a dominant social group — whether cultural, ethnic, racial or religious. Nowhere in the world is there a nation-state consisting exclusively of a single homogenous cultural group. Even where this was almost true (as in countries like Iceland, Sweden or South Korea), modern capitalism, colonialism and large-scale migration have brought in a plurality of groups. Even the smallest state will have minorities, whether in religious, ethnic, linguistic or racial terms.
Communalism
In everyday language, the word 'communalism' refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious identity. Chauvinism itself is an attitude that sees one's own group as the only legitimate or worthy group, with other groups being seen as inferior, illegitimate and opposed. Thus, communalism is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion.
This is a peculiarly Indian, or perhaps South Asian, meaning that is different from the sense of the ordinary English word. In the English language, 'communal' means something related to a community or collectivity as different from an individual. The English meaning is neutral, whereas the South Asian meaning is strongly charged.
Communalism is about politics, not about religion. Although communalists are intensely involved with religion, there is no necessary relationship between personal faith and communalism. A communalist may or may not be a devout person, and devout believers may or may not be communalists. However, all communalists do believe in a political identity based on religion.
The key factor is the attitude towards those who believe in other kinds of identities, including other religion-based identities. Communalists cultivate an aggressive political identity and are prepared to condemn or attack everyone who does not share their identity.
One of the characteristic features of communalism is its claim that religious identity overrides everything else. Whether one is poor or rich, whatever one's occupation, caste or political beliefs, it is religion alone that counts. All Hindus are the same, as are all Muslims, Sikhs and so on. This has the effect of constructing large and diverse groups as singular and homogenous.
Communalism is an especially important issue in India because it has been a recurrent source of tension and violence. India has had a history of communal riots from pre-Independence times, often as a result of the divide-and-rule policy adopted by the colonial rulers. But colonialism did not invent inter-community conflicts — there is also a long history of pre-colonial conflicts — and it certainly cannot be blamed for post-independence riots and killings. Instances of religious, cultural, regional or ethnic conflict can be found in almost every phase of our history.
However, we also have a long tradition of religious pluralism, ranging from peaceful co-existence to actual inter-mixing or syncretism. This syncretic heritage is clearly evident in the devotional songs and poetry of the Bhakti and Sufi movements. The poems of Kabir, synthesising Hindu and Muslim devotion, are cherished symbols of pluralism. History provides us with both good and bad examples; what we wish to learn from it is up to us.