Ram Puniyani
Last three decades have seen an unprecedented presence of religion
in social and political space. Somewhere the acts of terror, somewhere communal
violence and somewhere the political influence of religious right on society
and political processes, all these phenomenon have overshadowed the deeper
inequities in the society, the aspirations of people for dignity and rights
amongst others. Now comes a book which predicts that religions will become a minority
vis a vis the practice of secularism in the decade of 2040s. The book is “Why
Atheism will replace religion: The triumph of earthly pleasures over pie in the
sky” written by Nigel Barber. This book relates the rise/fall of the religion
with economic power and makes an observation that atheists are much more in developed
countries.
The book is based on the study of 137 nations conducted by the
author and concludes that in the countries; more developed the welfare system; higher
is the number of atheists. The book’s crunch line is, in countries where
distribution of income is even, lesser is the number of religious people. The
author is a prominent psychologist. He makes a prediction that people will feel
lesser need of supernatural beliefs when the tangible world is providing them for
their real needs. Also in
a survey conducted in America 20% people identified themselves as Atheists.
There is some terminological confusion
here to begin with, while the study is a very reasoned one, and links the lack
of security with the belief in god and practice of religiosity. Surely many a religions
themselves have atheism as a component of their structure. Some streams of
Hinduism like Charvak deny the existence of God. Jainism and Buddhism also do
not talk of a supernatural power, but it’s another matter that followers of
these religions converted the prophets of these religions themselves as Gods
and are worshipping them. In the broad umbrella of Hinduism there are many
traditions, Brahminism, Nath, Taantra, Bhakti, Siddh etc. In Hinduism itself
the concept of God is also very diverse, from the polytheism with multiple Gods
and Goddesses, tri-theism (Brahma Vishnu Mahesh) to the single God; Ishwar and
then to the concept of formless power all these concepts are coexisting together
merrily today.
In India thee atheist tradition starting
from Charvak, in present times it found a strong articulation amongst communists
the epitome of which has been Bhagat Singh with his famous tract, ‘Why I am an
Athiest’. Also radical social reformers like Periyar Ramsamy Naicker gave the
atheist movement a powerful lift. The rationalists association is nurturing the
same to a great extent.
Other religions, where there is a single
God, the concept of God keeps varying between the God with form and body to the
formless power. Many decades ago a plethora of books debated about the
existence of God. But last three decades in particular have seen a very
different phenomenon i.e. gross abuse of religions’ identity by the political
forces of status quo. Earlier to this, one saw in the beginning of 20th
century, in the decade of 1920s, Christian Fundamentalism was a response of the
conservative sections of society to the process of social change brought about
by the process of industrialization and education due to which Africa-Americans
and women started coming to social space. Islamic fundamentalism makes a
political appearance with the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Here it was
the politics related to oil and the high handed politics of Western powers
which foiled the popular revolution and brought in a cleric as the head of the
state. It was during this period that conservative versions of Islam were
promoted by some of the rulers who were scared of popular urges for democracy. Salafi
version of Islam is one such which was used in Saudi Arabia to keep a tight
leash over the popular aspirations so that the Saudi oil can keep flowing in to
the tankers of oil companies controlled by US-UK giants.
It is the same Salafi version of Islam
which was brought in to the service of US hegemonic interest to control the oil
in the region. This version was taught in
the Madrassas in Pakistan. These Madrassas were set up with US instigation,
money and syllabus, through which the Mujahedeen, Taliban Al Qaeda emerged and
played into the hands of US designs of throwing away Soviet army from
Afghanistan. In India, the insecurity of the section of middle classes in the
face of rising presence of dalits and women in social space in the decade of
1980s led to the political abuse of religion’s identity by BJP when it took up
the issue of Ram temple.
While the author of the book is talking
about the release of the hold of religiosity and God with rising affluence,
today sitting in South Asia the scenario seems to be the other way around. In
Pakistan the hold of Mullahs on the social affairs is a big obstacle to the
firm rooting of democracy there. In Sri Lanka again thousands of Tamils were
butchered while attacking LTTE, lately one is seeing an attack on Christians
and Muslims there. Not to be left behind, in Myanmar, the retrograde political
forces are attacking poor Rohingya Muslims in the name of Buddhism.
One must add that there is no
contradiction between secularism and religion. The author of this book is not
clear on this. With secularization process, the role of clergy was relegated to
the private sphere of society but religion as such was there. God was there. It’s
now that with prosperity going above the critical levels that more people are
feeling less need to call upon God to help them live a secure life. In South Asian countries a complex process
had been witnessed all through. While people with great amount of religiosity
and belief in God like Mahatma Gandhi and Mualan Abul Kalam Azad stood for
secular state, the non practicing Muslim like Jinnah led the movement for a
state in the name of Islam and an atheist Savarkar, was the ideologue of Hindu
nation. Many a leaders of Hindu national politics may not be so religious but
in the political arena, they create mass hysteria in the name of religion and
God.
One wishes to agree with the authors’
prediction. Hope it is not restricted just to Western countries. What is more
important is to realize is that mass spectacles of religiosity are an
expression of deeper social insecurities, which are being cashed in by the
politicians of ‘status quo’, who are deliberately using this religious identity
to ensure that social distribution of resources to weaker sections is stalled. Today
in India one can see a clear cut battle between those who stand for social
welfare, and struggle to bring in measures go in that direction on one side. On
the other are those political forces that resort to polarize the communities along
religious lines, around identity issues. The latter have a social base amongst
the socially insecure middle classes and the backing of section of big corporate
houses. Seeing the pains of this battle between two paths, one turns
pessimistic at times whether if at all, South Asia can get over the imposition
of God-Religion in political arena and focus on improving prosperity with
equitable distribution in society. In many a propaganda-claims being made for
‘development’ the factor of equitable growth is missing and that’s where the
real definition of development lies. The bluff of development by communal
forces has to be countered and the emphasis on the growth with concern for
equity, affirmative action for the victim religious minorities and
dalits-adivasis is the core around which the battle against the blind religiosity
and assertions of politics in the name of religion has to be taken forward.
Western countries though far from the
ideal in prosperity and growth, at least do not have the baggage of politics of
religion’s identity in such a strong way as is prevalent in ‘post-colonial’
states; that is dogging South, West Asia in particular. This book gives the
hope as far as prosperity and equity is concerned one hopes that this applies to
the troubled countries where abuse of religion’s identity is playing havoc with
the concept of human rights and survival of large sections of society.
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