Relationship between Politics and Religion in India
Relationship between Politics and Religion in India
Indian politics has an important relationship with Religion. Religion fulfills the role of an ideology in a situation of transition when there is a plethora of new demands and constant adjustments have to be made. Both Islam and Hinduism in the late nineteenth century were trying to accommodate the new demands. This ruptured their earlier accommodations and led to conflict with the necessity of a complex interaction between nationalism and Religion.
This is where the clash started. India failed on this front leading to conflicts and division between two competing utopia visions. The clash of egos over basis and minor disagreements made this division inevitable. The importance of religion, in spite of such conflicts can be clarified in the words of Gandhiji who said that those who assert that Religion has nothing to do with Politics, have no understanding of either Politics or Religion.
That the Hindu majority were more tolerant and absorbent of others’ viewpoint, is nothing new. The religion itself is distinguished because of its fundamental component of tolerance which separates it from other religion viewpoint. Anslie embree in his book on Utopias in Conflict states that “Tolerance is not merely an academic question. It is intrinsically linked with the minority. The Islamic community in India wanted neither to be absorbed or tolerated and this seems to have occurred to very few exponents of Hindu tolerance”.
Tolerance is also a matter of perception and over the centuries as India met with three different civilizations, the society evaluated. The coming of Islam in the eighth century, to the major power at the center, in the form of nearly 500 years of their mainstay, did not change any fundamental value in the Hindu religion. The coming of the Portugese and the French also did not lead to any changes in our social structure, the reason being the apathy similar to the earlier Muslim period when views were
Indian politics has an important relationship with Religion. Religion fulfills the role of an ideology in a situation of transition when there is a plethora of new demands and constant adjustments have to be made. Both Islam and Hinduism in the late nineteenth century were trying to accommodate the new demands. This ruptured their earlier accommodations and led to conflict with the necessity of a complex interaction between nationalism and Religion.
This is where the clash started. India failed on this front leading to conflicts and division between two competing utopia visions. The clash of egos over basis and minor disagreements made this division inevitable. The importance of religion, in spite of such conflicts can be clarified in the words of Gandhiji who said that those who assert that Religion has nothing to do with Politics, have no understanding of either Politics or Religion.
That the Hindu majority were more tolerant and absorbent of others’ viewpoint, is nothing new. The religion itself is distinguished because of its fundamental component of tolerance which separates it from other religion viewpoint. Anslie embree in his book on Utopias in Conflict states that “Tolerance is not merely an academic question. It is intrinsically linked with the minority. The Islamic community in India wanted neither to be absorbed or tolerated and this seems to have occurred to very few exponents of Hindu tolerance”.
Tolerance is also a matter of perception and over the centuries as India met with three different civilizations, the society evaluated. The coming of Islam in the eighth century, to the major power at the center, in the form of nearly 500 years of their mainstay, did not change any fundamental value in the Hindu religion. The coming of the Portugese and the French also did not lead to any changes in our social structure, the reason being the apathy similar to the earlier Muslim period when views were