An Anthropological Study on Economic Liberalization and Transformation of "Religious Space" in South Asia - Quest for everyday life religious activities against religious confrontation

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"Religious Space" in Indian society has been intensifying since the 1990s. This study, focusing on the parallels of this phenomenon with the advance of economic liberalization, is aimed at showing, through surveys of people's actual daily lives, how the recent developments in globalization correlate with the transformation of "religious space." With focus on the everyday religious practices of ordinary people of the majority (not necessarily Hindu Nationalists), this basic study reviews the issue of so-called "religious confrontation," which is inflamed by the top-down discourse generated in the political arena and the mass media, and places those discourses in accurate relative perspective.What becomes clear through the study, resulting from field surveys conducted in various parts of India, is, first, that the degree of stability of the social environment in which people live is a major factor determining the phenomenon of "religious confrontation." In short, if the social environmen … More t is not stable, people are prone to "false projection" ; that is, they may easily be tempted to find the cause of their social instability in the presence of different religious groups. This means that the top-down "religious confrontation" discourse is very effective in those situations. In contrast, in rural areas with a relatively high degree of stability, although people are aware of the "confrontation" going on in their country, they give priority to the "coexistence and harmony" of various groups due to their natural interest in the smooth managing of their everyday lives.The important second finding of the study is that even in these rural areas, not to mention in urban areas, there has been a growing tendency to "package religion," in other words, to standardize religious doctrines and practices. In general, traditional, local knowledge in the area of life and culture is rapidly being lost as the new packaged knowledge about daily life takes its place. The same tendency can be observed in religious practice. The concept of a "global standard" that has emerged in other areas is affecting the realm of religion as well. This new development can only create a socio-cultural environment in which "religious confrontation" easily takes place and spreads widely.In this connection, we have concentrated attention on the peripheral phenomena (and at the same time the support base) of religion, such as cults around mausoleums of Sufi saints (dargah), cults of local goddesses, urban "platform shrines" (shrines built on sidewalks), Hindu village shrines, the rural pilgrimage system, tribal religious institutions, and so forth. Because interest in and detailed reports of study on these aspects of religion can form a vector resisting the tendencies to package and standardize religion, the study makes it dear how crucial it is to create an environment conducive to conscious rediscovery of the traditionally accumulated wisdom and knowledge in local areas in order to halt and dismantle the demagogue-led, artificially constructed reality of "religious confrontation." Less