HVK Archives: Religious attention to detail
Religious attention to detail - The Telegraph
Atreyee Sen
()
16 May 1997
Title : Religious attention to detail
Author : Atreyee Sen
Publication : The Telegraph
Date : May 16, 1997
This book was born out of the social and scholarly concerns of sociologist T.N.
Madan. The author is disturbed by religious assertiveness in recent decades and
the declining fortunes of secularism.
He begins by tracing the origins of the concepts of ideology secularism and
religious pluralism to their Western roots. The belief in the universal validity
of these Enlightenment theories are so deeply embedded in the thinking of scholars
and statesmen, that they study native religions through the "transfer of set ideas
from one civilizational setting to another." To challenge the "infallibility" of
the Christian tradition, Madan discusses the same categories in the context of
Indian reality - how individual historical experiences of three major religions
gave rise to unique meaning systems.
Intrigued by the apparent paradox in Sikh scholars advocating a "secular
religion," the author studies patterns of secularization within Sikhism. He
locates the birth of Sikh fundamentalism in the sacralization of power in the
hands of Guru Hargovind Singh. It climaxed with Operation Blue Star and the death
of the "defender of faith," Bhindranwale, the state's ultimate assault on Sikh
narcissism.
Turning to Islam, the author observes that the faith has certain well defined
fundamentals which forms the core of Muslim orthodoxy. But its confrontation with
a highly developed civilization in the East, generated tensions for the protection
of the purity of the faith, which never settled down to a stable coexistence in
India.
The quest for secularization in Islam began with the power wielder's, search for
autonomy from religious specialists. The latter's anxieties reached crisis point
with Akbar's pluralistic tolerance, which marked the turning point from orthodoxy
to fundamentalism.
Though a secular worldview is difficult to reconcile with Islam, many Indian
Muslim thinkers have looked for commonalties between Islam and India's indigenous
religions. Pluralism is claimed to be inbuilt in the Hindu religious tradition.
Madan observes the principle of social hierarchy in thought and practice seemingly
permits a pluralist orientation, but in an inegalitarian manner.
He goes on to discuss the nascent militancy in Hindu revivalist movements in 19th
century Bengal and Punjab. It came to the fore as "Hindu fundamentalism" with the
rise of the Hindutva and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925.
Madan concludes with a discussion on Gandhi's Hinduism - who, according to the
author, comes closest to being a radical pluralist. He also reflects on
Jawaharlal Nehru's endorsement of "Indian secularism" - inter-religious tolerance
- which was a compromise after a life-long commitment to Enlightenment ideals
(which involved the total rejection of. religion). Nehru represents better than
anybody else the predicament of modernity
Madan believes a major reason for the rise of religious fundamentalism is the
excesses of ideological secularism and its emergence as dogma.
By subverting religion as is generally practised, secularism sets off a reaction
in the form of fundamentalism, which now has less to do with purity of faith and
more to do with power.
Madan's work lacks in contemporaenity as he does not comment on the more recent
problems of fundamentalism in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Neither
does to recommend policy resolutions to secessionism in India. His work to
valuable because he raises questions which the author feels "must be asked lest it
should be said there are locks an our minds."
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