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

20世纪90年代以来，印度社会中的“宗教空间”愈演愈烈。这项研究着眼于这一现象与经济自由化进程的相似之处，旨在通过对人们实际生活的调查，展示最近全球化的发展与“宗教空间”的转变是如何关联的。这项基础研究着眼于大多数普通人(不一定是印度教民族主义者)的日常宗教活动，考察了所谓的“宗教对抗”问题，这种问题是由政治舞台和大众媒体产生的自上而下的话语引发的，并将这些话语置于准确的相对视角中。这项研究通过在印度各地进行的实地调查得出的结论是，首先，人们生活的社会环境的稳定程度是决定“宗教对抗”现象的一个主要因素。简而言之，如果社会环境…更多的是不稳定的，人们很容易出现“错误的投射”，也就是说，他们很容易在不同的宗教团体面前找到自己社会不稳定的原因。这意味着自上而下的“宗教对抗”话语在这些情况下是非常有效的。相比之下，在稳定程度较高的农村地区，人们虽然意识到国家正在发生“对抗”，但出于对日常生活的顺畅管理的天然利益，他们优先考虑各种群体的“共存与和谐”。研究的重要发现之二是，即使在这些农村地区，更不用说在城市地区，也有越来越多的倾向于“打包宗教”，即规范宗教教义和做法。总的来说，生活和文化领域的传统地方性知识正在迅速消失，取而代之的是关于日常生活的新的成套知识。同样的趋势也可以在宗教实践中观察到。在其他领域出现的“全球标准”的概念也影响着宗教领域。这一新的发展只能创造一个容易发生宗教对抗并广泛蔓延的社会文化环境。在这方面，我们集中关注宗教的外围现象(同时也是支持基地)，如苏菲派圣人陵墓(Dargah)周围的邪教、当地女神的崇拜、城市“平台神殿”(建在人行道上的神殿)、印度教村落神殿、农村朝圣制度、部落宗教机构等。由于对宗教这些方面的兴趣和详细的研究报告可以形成一种媒介，抵制包装和规范宗教的倾向，这项研究使人清楚地认识到，创造一个有利于有意识地重新发现当地传统积累的智慧和知识的环境是多么重要，以制止和瓦解煽动者主导的、人为构建的“宗教对抗”的现实。较少

"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