Religion 24x7 in India

Every time I visit India, I am more amazed than ever at the explicit presence of religion in the public sphere. From autorickshaws, where drivers have their own gods as they insanely weave through the traffic, to government offices where practically everybody displays some religious symbol or the other, it is simply impossible to take a breather from god. Even the beach is littered with remnants of religious rites; in fact, families create some makeshift prayer thing right there on the sands. It also seems like people are more religious than before. I had never seen so many women wearing purdahs when I lived in India. Nor did I see the kind of crazy crowds at each and every temple.

So, it does not surprise me any bit to read in the Hindu that:

A national survey conducted by the Centre for Developing Societies, New Delhi, testifies to the growing influence of religion in Indian society. According to this survey, four out of 10 people are very religious and five out of 10 are religious. That is to say that 90 per cent of the respondents claimed to be religious — performing rituals, visiting places of worship and undertaking pilgrimages. Among them, 30 per cent claimed to have become more religious during the last five years. An increase in the number of religious institutions is also an indication of the greater hold of religion on society. Enlightenment and modernity in India have not led to the decline of the influence of religiosity. If anything, it has only increased.

About 30 percent becoming more religious over the last five years!

Such an ever present religion means that India's politics is far from secular. And then when you throw in the caste issues, well, .... The opinion piece itself meanders, which might be because it is an excerpt from a longer lecture. In any case, the conclusion is right on:

the use of religion for political ends has substantially increased during the last few decades. Such a development has serious implications for a secular state and society. Retrieving the secular character of the public sphere is therefore imperative; otherwise its religious character is likely to impinge upon the functions of the state.

One might wonder how this affects the functions of the state. Here is an example--a news item from the same issue of the Hindu. The rabidly open anti-Muslim rhetoric of the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who oversaw the worst communal violence when, as Robert Kaplan writes, "More than 400 women were raped; 2,000 people, overwhelmingly Muslim, murdered; and 200,000 more made homeless throughout the state." All in a matter of hours :-(

An excerpt from the news item, which is about a judge's verdict:

In his 243-page, hand-written report, Mr. Tamang has named the then "encounter specialist" of the Gujarat police, D.G. Vanzara, among others, accused in the "cold-blooded murder" of the teenaged girl and the three others.

Mr. Vanzara and several other policemen are already in jail in connection with the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, which the government confessed before the Supreme Court was a case of "fake encounter."...

Claiming that Ishrat and the three others were killed by the police officers for their personal interest - to get promotions and appreciation from the Chief Minister - Mr. Tamang appended a list of top police officers, running to about two pages, whom he held responsible for the fake encounter.

These political rogues will, of course, be the first in line to pay homage to Gandhi, whose birth anniversary is round the corner. Yep, it was in the state of Gujarat that Gandhi was born!