HVK Archives: 'Religion is a rallying point in U.S., India'
'Religion is a rallying point in U.S., India' - The Hindu
T. Rajagopalan
()
5 May 1997
Title : 'Religion is a rallying point in U.S., India'
Author : T. Rajagopalan
Publication : The Hindu
Date : May 5, 1997
A large number of American students in the United States remain "profoundly
ignorant" of the other parts of the world and even their close neighbours. This
is an irony since the U.S. itself is a nation of immigrants, according to Dr.
Laurence Moore, Professor of History, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
In pluralistic democracies, people from many places live and work and they need
something to identify themselves with. The "allegiances often get defined along
religious lines" and religion becomes something more than about religion itself.
This happened in the U.S., where the religious groups were "tight in the
beginning" but there was a loosening and interaction in the larger society took
place easily and freely, said 1)r Moore in an interview. This is important if a
nation is not to get divided against itself. In contemporary India also,
religions, mainly Hinduism and Islam, play a pivotal role, he remarked.
Casteism in India and slavery in the U.S. went against the grain of equality. In
many ways, the reservation system here and the affirmative action policies in the
U.S., although highly "contentious" issues, had done much in restoring the spirit
of equality. In both the countries, religion was a force to reckon with and had
become a rallying point for forging power groups.
Dr. Moore said 'secularism' in India meant equal respect to all religions whereas
in the U.S. it meant equal indifference to all religions. There is a uniform civil
code in the U.S. and there is no religious test for holding a political office.
But the Bible, a Christian document, is always on display at the function for the
inauguration of the President.
India has a much longer history than the U.S. and a comparative study of the
evolution and culture of the two countries will help in a sharper reflection".
This is especially important because the two largest secular democracies are
marked by religious pluralism. American studies as a subject of academic study
allow a "promiscuous mixing" of different kinds of texts from history, literature,
sociology, poetry, etc. In this context, Dr. Moore referred to the women's
studies programme which became an enriched but uneasy mixture of different
traditions." Dr. Moore said he was trying to convince his students in the U.S. to
study more about India. Indian students had a much better perspective of America
than American students had of India. A demographic change had taken place in the
student body of the American universities since a significant number of Asian
students are now in the U.S. India, the largest English speaking country, occupied
a vital position here. But "we don't have to sell America abroad anymore", he
pointed out in a lighter vein.
Dr. Moore is in the capital of Kerala in connection with a workshop - "Teaching
about the United States" - sponsored jointly by the Kerala University and the
United States Information Service. A large number of participants from
universities and colleges in Southern India and scholars, including Dr. Isaac
Sequeira and Dr. B. Ramesh Babu from the American Studies Research Centre,
Hyderabad, are attending the sessions. The final touch has been given to the
formation of a South India American Studies Network.
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