Globalisation
Religions, democracy and governance: spaces for the marginalized in contemporary India
Is there potential for democratic processes to influence discourses within religious communities?
Authors:
G. Mahajan; S.S. Jodhka
Publisher:
International Development Department, University of Birmingham, 2009
Religious identity remains the bedrock of social life and individual experience in India. Nevertheless, this paper deems that Indian democratic politics brings out new alignments, which surface repeatedly as a basis for articulating demands for access to opportunities and development possibilities.
The paper indicates experience of the working of Indian democracy reveals that competitive electoral politics compels parties to make advances with people from different “communities”. Furthermore, even when a religious community has an organised religious political party that claims to speak on its behalf, not all sections of the community align themselves with that party.
The paper concludes that while religious identity may be important to individuals, other identities also structure individual lives and social interactions. Likewise, the main conclusions of the paper are:
- the social differences within religious communities may play significant roles in shaping the relationships of particular religious groups with the state and democratic political processes
- there is potential for democratic political processes to influence discourses within religious communities by engaging with internally marginalised groups and shy them away from religious parties and leaders
- when religion has a noticeable place in the public sphere, electoral democracy sets complex processes into motion; it brings into play other identities, allowing non-religious concerns to be put on the political agenda
- however, it also pushes even secular political parties into using a religious idiom and may thus reinforce religious identity politics
- overall, understanding of the relationships between religion and politics needs to be based on a consideration of the spaces opened up by democratic politics and the dynamics thereby created.
