Editorial

Religion and Politics Sociological Bulletin

70(4) 447–452, 2021
in South Asia © 2021 Indian Sociological Society
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DOI: 10.1177/00380229211062752
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The Context: De-colonization and the formation of independent ‘nation-states’

across regions of the globe during the post-Second World War period marked the
beginning of a new phase in human history. Their freedom from colonial rule did
not mean that the colonized regions were being set free to go back to being what
they were prior to their “annexation” by West European powers. That option
rarely existed. In most cases, the de-colonized regions were already irreversibly
altered by the experience of colonization. Besides the colonial plunder and
domination, the Western rulers had also transformed the social and economic life
of their colonies. In fact, in most cases, the elite that claimed to represent the
“native” populations and mobilized them during the struggles for “independence”
belonged to a class that emerged directly under the colonial patronage, learning
not only the languages of the colonizers, but also acquiring their notions and ideas
of politics from the emerging democratic political cultures of the Western world.
Often, they were nearly as “modern” (read Western) as the colonial masters. Their
imaginations of ‘freedom’, ‘independence’ and nationalism had been largely
shaped by the historical experiences of the modern West, where nation-states and
nationalist ideologies had first emerged, along with the ideas of democracy and
citizenship.
To put it differently, the world-views of the emerging native elite who inherited
power from the erstwhile colonial masters had been largely shaped by the post-
French and post-Industrial revolution histories of the Western world. Even
when they disagreed among themselves, they tended to borrow their conceptual
repertoire from the prevailing intellectual trends in post-Enlightenment Europe
and the larger Western world in the 19th and the early 20th century. Even the
so-called “traditionalist thinkers” tended to borrow much of their vocabulary from
the West and often also addressed the Western audience while articulating the
greatness of their past cultures. The political ideas and ideologies emanating from
the Western modernity had come to be hegemonic during that period, and in many
ways, they continue to be so even today.
An obvious evidence and implication of this is the fact that after their
Independence, most of the “new” nation-states of the Global South modelled their
political systems along the formats of modern nation-states of Western Europe
or the United States of America. Even those who had been openly opposed to
the Western style democracies, founded on capitalist economic systems, tended
to generally work out a system that formally claimed to be ‘democratic’ and/
or ‘republican’, often hyphenating it with terms like ‘Islamic’ or ‘socialist’.
448 Sociological Bulletin 70(4)

They presented themselves to the rest of the world as having become ‘constitutional
democracies’. In other words, even those who did not choose western style
democracy in their practices of statecraft, pretended to do so in some form or the
other, in the format they chose for their political formations.
There were also other reasons for this to happen. By the middle of the 20th
century expanding capitalist markets had fundamentally altered the global
conditions. Being a nation-state in the post Second World War period implied
and required becoming a member of the global community of nation-states.
Every new country had to seek recognition from others, the existing nation-states.
They also needed to be accepted by the newly established global institution, the
United Nations, and become its member. Joining the United Nations implies
formally agreeing to its charters, a set of norms and practices that every country
was required to adhere to. This too essentially required committing to some form
of democracy and governance practices in accordance with the emerging global
norms of organizing political and juridical systems.
Thus, the nation-states had to all be modern political formations, even if not
de facto, certainly de jure. They also had to, in some form or the other, accept a
kind of double accountability. By becoming members of the United Nations, they
conceded to the idea of accountability to the global community of nation-states;
and by claiming to be some form of constitutional democracies, they also had
to be accountable to their citizens. This system of ‘double-accountability’, thus
implied that the regions that gained independence from colonial rule during the
post-Second World War period had to visualize themselves very differently from
what they were before their colonization.
While adhering to modern normatives of organizing political life as nation-
states, many also chose to be “secular” countries. Even though the text-book
definition of secularism presents it simply as a political system where affairs of
religion are kept at a distance from the state political processes, the idea has been
variously understood and practiced across different countries, even within the
Western world. Formally speaking, constitutional democracies are founded on
the idea of citizenship, which is legally granted to every person belonging to the
land as an individual right. However, in practice, very few have been able to do
so. Ascription based community identities have remained important and assertive,
demanding recognition of their cultural distinctiveness by the political system,
including demanding “communal” representation, or even institutionalising a
multicultural citizenship.
The modern-day nation-states, therefore, are not simply political systems or
organizations. They are also sociological realities and evolving processes. Their
actual practices of statecraft are shaped by their specific histories and a sociology
of community identities, including those of religious affiliations. These realities
do not simply reflect their distinctive nature or character as political formations
but also become sources of everyday contests and conflicts around questions of
rights, representations and citizenship. Even though they tend to invoke the idea of
“tradition” and to hark back to some notion of pre-colonial pasts, they use modern
methods of mobilization and, in many cases, were born during the colonial period,
precisely as a response to the demands of colonial modernity.
Editorial 449

Towards a Sociological Approach: In the South Asian region, religion

has undoubtedly been the most important axis of such mobilizations, conflicts
and contentions. In the literature produced by political scientists and political
commentators, the presence of religion in the public sphere in the countries of the
South Asian region is often viewed as being anomalous, a kind of evidence of their
“immaturity” or “a lack”. For example, much of the literature on inter-religion
and inter-ethnic conflicts describes it as “communalism”, which is invariably
attributed to some kind of ‘elite-manipulation’ and/or a result of a collective false
consciousness, as if all those who participate in such conflicts are either gullible
masses, incapable of thinking rationally, or cynically and instrumentally mobilized
for electoral political gains by their leaders. However, religious communities and
their identities are not closed and frozen realities.
Thus, a sociological engagement with questions such as the dynamics of
‘religion and politics’ ought to begin with framing the questions empirically by
locating the specifics in their larger historical context. Such an approach would
enable us to avoid over-generalizations and normative judgements. It would also
help us explore sociologically imaginative answers, which are context sensitive
and politically open.
Perhaps a good starting point for a sociology of religion and politics in South
Asia could be the classical sociological writing on religion, which all approached
and explored religion as a normal social process. Even though they personally
distanced themselves from the position of a believer, they did not dismiss religious
sentiment simply as a manifestation of ignorance or immaturity, counterposing it
to the idea of reason. A sociological approach to the subject would thus demand
extensive, imaginative and critical engagements with a diversity of social, political
and historical contexts.
The specific nature of social formations in the region is informed by the
diversity of religions and ethnicities together with significant continuities of
culture or ways of lives. Both the spiritual and the temporal find accommodation
in the political praxis with varied forms, intentions and outcomes. South Asia is
also in the throes of massive social transformations. Processes such as economic
and cultural globalization or the aggressive pursuance of neo-liberal economic
adjustments have unleashed a range of new anxieties and aspirations. The post-
1990s middle class significantly departs from the values cherished and propagated
by the earlier leadership. There is a resounding approval for aggressive nationalism
and triumphalist doctrines that rest on ‘otherising’ sections of the citizenry
and restructuring institutions and inter-group relationships. Buddhist-Sinhala
nationalism in Sri Lanka, Hindutva in India or political Islam in Pakistan and
Bangladesh, relatively dormant in the past, have come to capture the imaginations
of large sections of their populations. While a sociological understanding of the
rise, successes and sources of their legitimacy is indeed a pertinent challenge for
the profession, we also need to explore microprocesses, the everyday politics of
religious identities and the lived realities of religions as faith communities.
The Special Issue: The essays in this special issue interrogate the relationship
between religion and politics in its diverse forms, manifestations and locations.
Neil Devotta posits the rise of majoritarian nationalism in South Asia as a crisis
450 Sociological Bulletin 70(4)

of liberal-democracy in post-colonial societies. This has resulted in their mutation

into ethnocracies, i.e, polities privileging a specific cultural collective at the
expense of the other constituents of the national society. Sri Lanka’s turn towards
ethnocracy is precipitated by the surge of political Buddhism that ‘incorporates
religious beliefs within an overarching and hegemonic culture’. Citizenship is laced
with religious affiliation based on prevailing mythologies that endorse Sri lanka
as a sinhadipa (island of the Sinhalese) and a dhammadipa (island of Buddhist
teachings) and hence a sanctuary for Buddhism. Interestingly, the Tamil-Sinhala
conflict that resulted in a raging civil war in the country foregrounded ethnic,
not religious, differences despite most Sinhalas being Buddhists and most Tamils
being Hindus. However, Buddhist religious belligerence is more pronounced in
the case of anti-Muslim Islamophobia that pervades state and large sections of
Sinhala society. Despite its anti-Tamil rhetoric, political Buddhism is not anti-
Hindu and Devotta attributes this to the syncretic past when elements of Hindu
belief system entered the everyday Buddhism of the Sinhalese. Extending further,
the essay demonstrates how Sinhalatva, the ideological foundation of Sinhala
political Buddhism mirrors Hindutva, the philosophy of Hindu nationalism in
India. Thus, South Asian polities betray mutual influences and interconnections
akin to the intersections of cultures, histories and geographies.
The following paper by Aseem Prakash provides an account of religion and
politics in a micro context of a small town of northern India, Kanauj, with focus
on the economies of ittar (organic perfume). Prakash prefers to describe his
account of the ittar business as ‘social history’ and looks at the interconnections
across the realms of society, economy and politics. As he argues, ittar production
and trade not only provides sustenance and income to significant numbers of
Kannauj’s population, but has also come to be source of ‘the social identity of
the town as individuals and families residing in the town connect through various
activities associated with the ittar trade, and most conversation in everyday social
interaction is around ittar’. He finds that the economic activities of the town related
to the business in ittar are deeply embedded in the local social structures and
processes’. The economic activities associated with ittar and associated products
connect families from diverse socio-economic locations through social networks.
The overall dominance of ittar business in the local economy and its all-pervasive
embeddedness in society significantly impacts local politics of the town, which in
turn also has a bearing on the local economy and relational processes. The links of
local politics with the economy and vice-a-versa are thus mediated through social
networks in the Kannauj town.
The third paper by O.B. Roopesh explores the politics of Hindu nationalism
in the South Indian state of Kerala with a focus on the activities of organizations
affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and
allied organizations. Kerala is popularly known for secular and left politics. It is
one of the regions of India where the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has hardly
ever been electorally significant. Roopesh’s paper qualifies such a popular notion
of the Sangh and highlights how they are working towards spreading the culture
of Hindu rituals and temple management. Though their activities are focussed
on spreading a Brahmanical Hindu culture, they are also willing to adapt to the
Editorial 451

local Hindu religious traditions and take into their fold the temple culture of caste
groups that have traditionally been allowed access to such spaces by the temple
establishment. His study particularly highlights how those from non-Brahmin
castes are being trained to be priests. The Sangh Parivar has also been introducing
new cultures of collective singing and congregational rituals.
While Hindutva politics has steadily gained ascendancy in “secular” India and
is slowly spreading its activities even in the regions of Kerala where their electoral
presence has been minimal, the Islamic state of Pakistan has interestingly had a
very different trajectory. Despite an extensive use of Islam by the Pakistani state
for its political legitimacy, the political parties that manifestly identify themselves
as protectors of Islam have never had any electoral success. Even their combined
vote share remains within a single digit. With his focus on the religious idiom in
the regional politics of Punjab province, Hassan Javid provides two reasons for
the “paradoxical” nature of Pakistani politics. First, the politics in the country
remains woven around a patronage based electoral system, which is dominated by
traditional propertied-elite organized through kinship-based networks. The second
reason he identifies for this is ‘the co-optation of the religious idiom of politics by
mainstream parties and the state’. However, this may be changing. With his focus
on the Punjab province and a recent entrant in the electoral domain, the Tehreek-
i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Javid shows how TLP seemed to be gaining ground
through its increasing activities in non-electoral spheres of politics.
Beyond the domain of formal politics and its interplay, how do we compre-
hend the politics of a social formation that is avowedly apolitical? M.H Ilias, in
his essay, tries to make sense of the ideas surrounding politics among the neo-
Salafi Islamic reformers who theoretically retreat themselves to the social and the
religious spheres. Among the points of contention for the neo-Salafis with Kerala’s
old Salafi reformism was the latter’s intrusions into the domain of politics. Through
a historical analysis Ilias traces the ever-changing terrain of politics among the
Salafis of Kerala. Irrespective of its representations as a rigid, theology-centred
religious current, Salafism in Kerala (and elsewhere) was amenable to locally
contingent adjustments and innovations in thought. Relying on ijtihad or context
bound interpretations, the Salafis, under the influence of national movement, were
able to harmonise pan-Islamism with Indian nationalism. Post-independence, the
movement sought adjustments with secularism allowing its adherents to become
members of secular, including communist, political formations. Neo-Salafism,
product of Kerala’s growing connections with the Arab world, advocated
eschewing politics and negation of secularism in contrast. This has resulted in
circulation of suspicions surrounding its ideological orientations. The essay,
based on interviews with neo-Salafist activists, deconstructs the binaries of
secular-reformists versus literal-revivalists or political versus apolitical to under-
stand multiple ways in which neo-Salafis engage with secular politics.
The question of citizenship, apparently simple when reduced to its juridico-
legal definitions, is intensely intricate owing to the bearings of caste, religion and
nationality. The latter unravels in the process of claiming citizenship status and
making a quest for the promised entitlements--what Mohita Bhatia refers to as
‘performative citizenship’. Through a protracted fieldwork in Rajasthan’s Barmer
452 Sociological Bulletin 70(4)

district, the essay documents the politics and agency of the Hindu refugees from
Pakistan in the process of shedding their Pakistani identity and citizenship and
acquiring an Indian one. Unlike scholarships on refugees that project them as
vulnerable victims, the essay demonstrates how the refugees act as social and
political agents who enter into negotiation with officials, build contacts, engage
with the host communities and enter into civil society activism to air their
grievances and facilitate the process for others. Bhatia reminds that this agency
of the refugees is ‘dualistic’ as it has both empowering as much as chauvinistic
sides. Apart from making political claims, they also actively feed into the Hindu
nationalist discourse presenting India as a natural homeland of the Hindus while
portraying Pakistan as a land of their persecution. But despite expectations of
a grand Hindu homogeneity, this mirage is shattered when confronted with the
realities of a society segmented on grounds of caste and class.
Tanweer Fazal digs into history to examine the contention and coalescence that
marks the relationship between Sikh political consciousness and the rising tide
of the Hindu Right in India. The essay traces the trajectory of community forma-
tion through the imaginaries of panth (religious community), qaum (nation) and
Punjabiyat (region)—in the Sikh political narrative. The object of enquiry is the
Shiromani Akali Dal, which since its inception in the 1920’s, is the chief protago-
nist of a Sikh exclusive theo-politics. Each of these formulations of community
formation—panth, qaum and punjabiyat—draw their meanings and implications
from the social and political context in which they emerged. At the same time, it
would be erroneous to assume that they tread a linear trajectory. There is rather a
simultaneity where each of these ideas co-exist, but subject to contextual applica-
tion. At the same time, they are both internally and externally contested. Beyond
the binary of ‘self’ versus ‘other’, Fazal argues for a triadic framework in which
the ‘nation-state’ figures as a key entity in the formation of competing communal
identities. Thus, Sikh vacillation between being a minority/community and being
a nation is contingent upon how the ‘nation-state’ styles itself, as accommodative
or hegemonic. The evident uneasiness of Sikh political consciousness with that of
Hindutva too is a pointer towards aggressive nationalism and centralization that
the latter is given to pursue, the essay deducts.
Together, the papers presented in the volume provide us an understanding of the
diverse trajectories of relationship that religion has had with politics in the South
Asian region. Their diversity is not merely nation-state specific but also varies
depending upon the focus and perspective. A micro-view may provide a different
perspective on the subject compared to a macro mapping of electoral politics or
inter-religious conflicts. The nature of religion-politics relationship has also been
changing over time across nation-states in the region. Most importantly perhaps,
even these limited number of case studies caution us against any straitjacketed,
premeditated or linear approach to the study of the association between religion
and politics.

Surinder S. Jodhka and Tanweer Fazal