This paper looks at the interface of religion and globalisation. It points out that the major religions of the world are being used as spreader of the globalisation agenda and this is often accompanied by an unprecedented flow of funds into the third world. The major consequences of globalisation have been: the transmogrification of traditional religions and belief systems; the beginning of the disintegration of the traditional social fabrics and shared norms by consumerism, cyber-culture, newfangled religions and changing work ethics and work rhythms; the fast spreading anomie forcing an ever increasing number of individuals to fall back upon the easily accessible pretentious religious banalities, and attributing to religion the creation and acceleration of extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist tendencies in the third world countries.
It may sound apocryphal that no social phenomenon other than globalisation has ever made the third world so captive to the master world. As individuals, social groups and countries at large have of late begun to grapple with its pernicious effects on them which are pervasive, it looks as though the world would remain preoccupied till dooms day with debates, discourses, demonstrations and ‘actions’ packed in related modes on how best to resist, and if not, adjust and adapt to the stalking of this global monster.
In this context, this paper looks at the interface between one of the main support systems of society, namely, religion, and globalisation, and its nature in
- The interface between religion and globalisation is contrary to conventional sociological wisdom that as societies progress the traditional significance of religions declines.
- For the success of globalisation, especially in the third world, its dramatis personae have been using the major religions of the world as purveyors of their globalisation agenda, with unprecedented flow of funds for the purpose from the master world to the third world.
- The major consequences of globalisation have been
- The transmogrification of traditional religions and belief systems;
- The beginning of the disintegration of the traditional social fabrics and shared norms by the invasion of consumerism, cyber culture, newfangled religions, social fads, and changing work ethics and work rhythms;
- The fast spreading anomie (in the Durkhemian sense) forcing an ever increasing number of individuals to fall back upon – for moral and social support – the easily accessible pretentious religious banalities;
- Attributing to religion the creation and acceleration of extremist, fundamentalist, and terrorist tendencies in the third world countries, which are intended to destabilise them, and strike at the root of their civilisation, and multicultural and pluralist nature.
- Paradoxically, however, the resultant vicious nexus and vicious circle make these countries look to the same monster and its creators for their sustenance in a world in which they have become more vulnerable.
To place these arguments in perspective, religion is looked at in social, global, and globalisation contexts, and religion and globalisation are looked at in Indian context.
Social and Global Contexts
The nature and functions of religion in society have been under speculation and discourse for several centuries; the approaches to the understanding of religion – philosophical, theological, anthropological, sociological – and the related dimensions of religious ideas have been very old; and the nexus between religion and society has been very close, with wide, complex, intricate and elaborate ramifications: The role of religion in giving spiritual and moral sustenance to individuals, the related regulation of social life and moral order, creating and regulating cultural forms, and the integration of society. One may go with the French sociologist Emile Durkheim’s postulate (endorsed by, among others, the English anthropologist A R Radcliffe-Brown) that “the main role (or “function”) of religion is to celebrate and sustain the norms upon which the integration of society depends”[1]
Whether Christianity has been on the decline as a belief system should not be a matter of serious concern. For one thing, it is still the largest religion of the world, and church attendance is not the real measure of religious identity in a world, which is increasingly governed by power, pelf, and identity politics. More so, when the percentage point mentioned is negligible. For another, what Christianity has been losing in the wave is being gained by it in the wind. The worldwide call by Pope John Paul II, especially since his visit to
It is important to know in the context of religion vis-à-vis globalisation that some of the religions especially founded religions such as Christianity and Islam had gone global (in the sense of spreading them across the world) centuries ago, often with violence and warfare. Though Buddhism also tried to go global its influence was mostly in Asian countries.
If religions had gone global, one might ask whether they really had any ‘globalising’ force. The answer is partly in the affirmative. The spread of Christianity in the west is a clear case. In fact, there have been apprehensions about the political and social implications in the third world of a rising global Christianity, especially in the context of the north-south relations.
Religion and Globalisation
Globalisation is often described as a process: steadily progressing over time, pervasively spreading over space, and clearly inevitable in its development. But globalisation is also a revolution, one of the most profound revolutions the world has ever known. Indeed, globalisation is the first truly world revolution.
All revolutions disrupt the traditions and customs of a people. Indeed, they threaten a people’s very security, safety, and identity. The world revolution that is globalisation in some measure threatens the security of every people on the globe.
The disruptive effects of globalisation on religion are particularly worrisome. On globalisation as a global mantra and its effects, James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer wrote:
Globalisation is at the centre of diverse intellectual and political agendas, raising crucial questions about what is widely considered to be the fundamental dynamic of our time – an epoch-defining set of changes that is radically transforming social and economic relations and institutions in the 21st century.[3]
Petras and Veltmeyer have dismissed the ‘inevitability bogey’ – embedded in the surfeit of literature on globalisation, which
In an article, ‘Religion and Globalisation’, Jim Spickard (
– Popular images of “globalisation” stress its economic and political character, especially the global reach of transnational corporations that are shifting power away from states – and thus from citizens – efforts to control their own fates. In these images, religious organisations respond to globalisation, sometimes by supporting anti-global movements (e g: anti-WTO protests, north/south economic justice efforts, neo-fundamentalisms, etc).
– A second commonly noted attribute of globalisation is increased migration, which has also had religious consequences.
– Religions are at the forefront of the globalisation process.
– Globalisation fundamentally alters power relationships, both religious and scholarly.
– Globalisation highlights “religious” processes that extend far beyond church life. One can, for example, analyse human rights in the light of the Durkheimian notion that religion gives us a symbolic image of social life.
Globalisation is not science or a scientific project. It is a political and imperialist project, which uses both science and religion in an irreconcilable manner. In some sense the attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) on September 11, 2001 was a counter-blast against globalisation. So also the so-called terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. Here what have been used are not the tenets of any particular religion or scriptural injunctions, but versions of religion for drawing sustenance to take on the might of the empire. So, it is wrong to conclude that sporadic counterblasts are extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism,[5] and naively believe in the chicanery by the American Presidents and their lackeys that much more lethal attacks, devastations and destructions (including of religious and cultural heritage) by the US have been in the interest of democracy and world peace. Their hypocrisy and double-speak are in stark contrast to what Noam Chomsky described as the golden rule of democracy.
George Bush, characterised by many social critics as a ‘born-again Christian’, was not above his belief system when, following Samuel Huntington’s misguided missile ‘clash of civilisations’, he referred to the ‘retaliatory strikes’ (whatever that may mean in the absence of any concrete evidence) against Afghanistan as a ‘crusade’.
The Bush-Blair blitzkrieg in Iraq with utter impunity and scorn to the UN and international opinion, the effect of which on Islam, Islamic World, Islamic fundamentalism, and Islamic psyche has yet to unfold, is one of the many crude, cruel, hideous, and horrendous manifestations of this fast unfolding US “usurpation” of the third world countries on the pretext of crushing (religion linked) terrorism. It is probably only a foretaste of what is in store for the other third world countries if they prove recalcitrant and fail to kowtow to the diktats of the
In the book Religion and Globalisation Peter Beyer asked: How religion is important in a globalised society? What role does it play in a highly interconnected world? Reviewing the book (as reproduced in the publisher’s web site) Richard Roberts summarised its theme thus: will systematic world religion prove capable of generating the kind of “global civil religion” (albeit diversified) that is much needed where functional differentiation and cultural fragmentation have destroyed shared norms?
Destroying the shared norms has been precisely the work of globalisation, which in turn has been systematically weakening the religious fabric of the third world.
In an interview to the Indian Weekly, Outlook (January 3, 2000), Chomsky observed:
The consensus of the rich and powerful is that the weak and defenceless should be subjected to market discipline, while the rich and powerful should continue to shelter under the wings of the nanny state … The global consensus is achieving its aims of enriching small sectors, dismantling social bonds and social support systems, and undermining democracy – one of the chief goals and consequences, of liberalising capital flow … “disposable people are being removed from society, either left in deteriorating urban slums and collapsing rural communities or sent to prison. Though crime rates have been declining, incarceration has sharply increased, targeting the poor and minorities by various devices, primarily, a ‘drug war’ that’s recognised to be utterly fraudulent by serous criminologists, a consequence of a deliberate social policy designed to remove the superfluous population. Other industrial societies are proceeding along similar paths, though in different ways.
While on religion and globalisation, it is important to know whether globalisation unites or divides religions; results in newfangled religions; and has a direct nexus with fundamentalism
and religion-linked terrorism.[6] It is also important to ascertain whether for its new imperialist project globalisation has been exploiting different religious forms; whether fundamentalism and religion-inspired terrorism have increased since the advent of globalisation; and whether religions, far from being belief systems in their traditional sense, have spawned new dimensions which are far removed from the ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ realms.
Indian Context
India, whose population accounts for about one-sixth (about 1.3 billion) of the world population, and is home to all the major religions of the world – Hinduism (82 per cent), Islam (12.5 per cent), Christianity (2.4 per cent), Sikhism (2 per cent), Buddhism (0.8 per cent), and Jainism (0.4 per cent) – may soon turn out to be an accomplice, a villain, and a victim of globalisation, through the manoeuvres of the Sangh parivar.
L K Advani, a Hindu communalist had a major role in assiduously building up (and in the process ‘building himself up’ as a politician) Hindu-Muslim communal hate through his infamous ‘rath yatra’ from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990. The rath yatra not only transformed just another opposition politician into the ideological mascot of Hindutva, but also and more importantly, through its political journey redefined the trajectories of Indian politics. Advani himself described it as a movement of mass awakening – one that catapulted the BJP on to the national centrestage, and made Hindutva a core political issue. It culminated in the demolition of Babri masjid on December 6, 1992.
Stating that a sizeable section of Indian society today is still living in ignorance and religious misconceptions of the medieval era, a third source observed that over eight million fake sadhus and swamis are flourishing on the alms offered by such people in the name of religion.[7] As these fake swamis form a hierarchy from the lowest to the highest, some observations on their nature will also be in order. For this purpose, two lengthy reports are reproduced below.
Conclusion
In a context like this, if the third world has to be on its own, it has to disable the
One, by Virginia Saldanha in the article mentioned earlier:
Religious people who struggle for a more inclusive and peaceful world should return to the roots of our religions where we will find the truth. Those of us who are Christians will remember the words of Jesus spoken in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit … blessed are the peace makers, blessed are those who work for justice.
Two, by Andre Mukenge:[8]
I am an African, and my God isn’t yours. I’m a Muslim. I can’t live together with the Christians. The Asiatic trusting system isn’t the same in Europe and in
Nowadays the manner that people trust in God in Asia, in Europe and in
Three, by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance: You, and I, and everyone else have two options:
– Promote religious tolerance – the right of people to hold religious beliefs that are strange to us, without hindrance or oppression.– To continue living in a world saturated with religious intolerance. We will then experience more religiously-based-wars, terrorism, and civil disturbances, as we have seen recently in
While the meaning and message of the above quotes are only too obvious, one important issue that needs special attention is the nature and extent of democratic space available for articulation of various forms of social demands, societal dynamics and pressures, and social aspects, of which religion is only one. When all is said, the 20th century has been characterised as ‘democracy’s century’. Have the countries, which became free during this century from colonial rule and turned democratic, really created the much-needed civil space for democratic articulation? Religion is, obviously, an integral part of these countries, irrespective of the effect of globalisation on them.
Bibliography
Beyer, F Peter, Religion and Globalisation, Sage Publications,
Fuller, C J, The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in
Geertz, Clifford, ‘Religion: Anthropological Study’ in David L Sills (ed) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Collier-Macmillan Publishers,
Huntington, Samuel P, ‘The Clash of Civilisations’, (Summer), Foreign Affairs. 1993
Mehta, Uday, Modern Godmen in
Petras, James and Veltmeyer Henry, Globalisation Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century, Zed Books,
Shourie, Arun, Harvesting Our Souls: Missionaries, Their Design, Their Claims, ASA,
Toffler, Alvin, Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century, Bantam Books,
[1] Clifford Geertz, ‘Religion: Anthropological Study’ in David L Sills (ed) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Collier-Macmillan Publishers,
[2] Sangh parivar literally means an organisation’s family. Here the reference is to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and related organisations, all of which have been working for transforming
[3] James Petras, and Henry Veltmeyer, Globalisation Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century, Zed Books,
[4] Published in the Newsletter of the American Sociological Association Section on Religion, Fall 2001.
[5] The views on fundamentalists and their acts vis-à-vis religion vary widely.
For instance, Virginia Saldanha, in a write-up ‘Fundamentalists are not rooted in the truth of their religions’, in the National Catholic Reporter of April 23, 2003 observed: (1) “The extreme right wings of the world’s four main religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism) seem to be on the rise and gaining strength. Furthermore, the rise is coupled
with the consolidation of political power by an elite class of politicians and business interests”. (2) “All fundamentalists have the same agenda, namely, gaining political power to boost their economic power”.
(3) “Fundamentalists achieve their goal by using religion to gain control over the lives of people. Fundamentalists interpret religion to suit their own ends. They claim to speak and act in the name of God”
[6] In this context it is important to note the following observations (as reported in the Indian English daily The New Indian Express on September 17, 2003) by Indian prime minister, A B Vajpayee, at
Do not discredit Islam; it’s not a terror source. Describing international terrorism as a ‘global monster’, Vajpayee flayed the ‘selective approach’ and differing standards of some countries in combating the menace, and dismissed the western belief that Islam is a source of terrorism. About the tendency in the west to subscribe to the view that Islam is a source of terrorism, he said: “We totally dismiss the proposition that any religion is a source of terrorism. Such arguments seek to discredit one of the great religions of the world.” No religion, he said, prescribed violence against innocent people. “Our battle is against extremist elements who misuse and misinterpret religion to justify terrorism and incite violence”.
Though the above observations might have gladdened the people of
[7] Mass Education from religious platform’, Vol 36,
[8] Andre Mukenge, ‘Religion and Globalisation’, South Corporation Journalism (Online), pp 1-2.
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