Meera Nanda - The God Market. How Globalization is Making India More Hindu

RANDOM HOUSE INDIA

Published by Random House India in 2011

Copyright Meera Nanda 2009

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EPUB ISBN 9788184002676

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A NOTE TO THE READERS

All quotations and facts and figures cited in the book are backed by complete references provided in the notes at the end of the book. Readers are invited to follow along by matching the first few words of a sentence with the correct page number listed in the notes. Those interested in further reading will find the Bibliographic Essay useful.

CONTENTS

Introduction

God and Globalization in India

India had its own why do they hate us? moment after the city of Mumbai came under attack in November 2008 by a bunch of gunmen with links to terrorist outfits in Pakistan. Many in India answered the question much the same way George Bush famously explained the 9/11 attacks on the United States: Islamic terrorists hate us because we are good and they are evil; we are free and democratic and they hate freedom and democracy.

This usthem divide was further linked to globalization, a word that got bandied about a great deal in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. Pakistanis hate us, many argued in India, because we are winning in the global economy race, while they are a bunch of sore losers bent upon dimming the bright glow of our economic miracle. The terror attacks were seen as a conspiracy meant to destroy the confidence of global investors, slow down the outsourcing of IT and other jobs to India, and stop foreign tourists from coming.

India is seen as winning the globalization race not only on the economic front, but on the civilizational front as well. As Robert Kaplan, a well-known foreign policy expert, wrote in The New York Times shortly after the Mumbai attacks, globalization has led Indians to look for roots of their vibrantly free democracy in Hinduism, while Muslims of India and Pakistan are looking for roots in the Islamic world community and withdrawing into beards, skull-caps and burqas in some cases; and self-segregating into ghettos in other cases. A similar sentiment was echoed in India as well. M.V. Kamath, a commentator well known for his strong Hindutva views, wrote in The Organiser that while indestructible India, wearing a cheerful smile and forgiving countenance is busy sending rockets to the moon, its sick Muslim neighbour and many Indian Muslims are bent upon isolating themselves by wearing skull-caps, forcing women to wear burqas, and otherwise refusing to join the mainstream.

Something rather strange is going on here. The extreme conservatism of some Muslims, who are indeed withdrawing into traditional attire and symbols of their faith, is made to stand for the entire Islamic world community. But on the other hand, the accomplishments of Indiaof all Indians, belonging to all of Indias many faiths and creedsare happily claimed for the glory of Hinduism. India, with its Hindu civilization, is presented as the bright, forward-facing side of globalization, while Pakistanand indeed, Islam itselfbecomes its dark, demonic, and backward-facing underside. The world gets divided into two: the winners who have the right kind of civilizational resources to play and win in the global economy, and the rest who are deemed to be laggards, if not total losers.

What this Book is about

This book challenges this us and them narrative. It sets out to show that India is not free from the forces of politicized religiosity which expresses itself in a growing sense of Hindu majoritarianism.

Indeed, politicized religiosity seems to be the order of the day everywhere. Globalization is making the whole world more religiousand all religions more political. Even as they are drawing closer economically, people all over the world are becoming more self-conscious of their religious and civilizational heritage. One can say that globalization has been good for the godsand often, sadly, for gods warriors as well who incite conflict and violence in the name of their faith.

India is no exception to this global trend.

This book aims to explore the changing religious landscape of India as it globalizes. It not only describes the changing trends and texture of everyday expressions of Hinduism, it connects these trends to the larger political, economic, and institutional shifts that the country is experiencing as it emerges as a major player in the global economy and world affairs. The overall aim of this book is to describe how modern Hindus are taking their gods with them into the brave new world and how Hindu institutions are making use of the new opportunities opened up by neo-liberalism and globalization.

The following, in broad brushstrokes, is the picture this book presents:

As India is liberalizing and globalizing its economy, the country is experiencing a rising tide of popular Hinduism which is leaving no social segment and no public institution untouched. There is a surge in popular religiosity among the burgeoning and largely Hindu middle classes, as is evident from a boom in pilgrimage and invention of new and more ostentatious rituals.

This religiosity is being cultivated by the emerging statetemplecorporate complex that is replacing the more secular public institutions of the Nehruvian era.

In other words, the deregulatory regime put in place to encourage a neo-liberal market economy is also boosting the demand and the supply for religious services in Indias God market.

Aided by the new political economy, a new Hindu religiosity is getting ever more deeply embedded in the everyday life, both in the public and the private spheres. Use of explicitly Hindu rituals and symbols in the routine affairs of the state and electoral politics has become so commonplace that Hinduism has become the de facto religion of the secular Indian state which is constitutionally bound to have no official religion.

Given Indias growing visibility in the global economy, Hindu religiosity is getting fused with feelings of national pride and dreams of becoming a superpower. The countrys economic success is being attributed to the superiority of Hindu values, and India is seen as entitled to the Great Power status because of its ancient Hindu civilization. Thus the hard-won achievements of all of Indias many diverse religious traditions and cultures are being absorbed into the religion of the majority community.

This new culture of political Hinduism is both triumphalist and intolerant in equal measures: while it wants the entire world to admire the superior tolerance and non-violence of the Hindu civilization, it tolerates intolerance and even violence against religious minorities at home.