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

自20世纪90年代以来，印度社会的“宗教空间”不断强化。本研究关注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日常生活的调查，展示全球化的最新发展如何与“宗教空间”的转变相关联。本基础研究聚焦于大多数普通人（不一定是印度教民族主义者）的日常宗教实践，回顾了所谓的“宗教对抗”问题，这是由政治舞台和大众媒体中产生的自上而下的话语所引发的，并将这些话语置于准确的相对视角中。通过在印度各地进行的实地调查，这项研究清楚地表明，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，如果社会环境不稳定，人们就容易产生“错误投射”；也就是说，他们很容易受到诱惑，在不同宗教团体的存在中寻找社会不稳定的原因。这意味着自上而下的“宗教对抗”话语在这些情况下非常有效。相比之下，在稳定程度相对较高的农村地区，人们虽然意识到自己的国家正在发生“对抗”，但出于对日常生活顺利管理的天然兴趣，他们优先考虑各群体的“共存与和谐”。该研究的第二个重要发现是，即使在这些农村地区，更不用说在城市地区，“包装宗教”的趋势也在增长，换句话说，就是将宗教教义和实践标准化。总的来说，生活和文化领域的传统的地方知识正在迅速消失，而有关日常生活的新的包装知识取而代之。在宗教实践中也可以观察到同样的趋势。在其他领域出现的“全球标准”概念也影响着宗教领域。这种新的发展只会造成一种容易发生和广泛传播“宗教对抗”的社会文化环境。在这方面，我们把注意力集中在宗教的外围现象（同时也是支持基础）上，比如围绕苏菲圣人陵墓的崇拜（dargah）、对当地女神的崇拜、城市“平台神殿”（建在人行道上的神殿）、印度教村庄神殿、农村朝圣体系、部落宗教机构等等。因为对宗教这些方面的兴趣和详细的研究报告可以形成抵制宗教包装和标准化倾向的载体，这项研究表明，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，以停止和拆除煽动主导的、人为构建的“宗教对抗”现实是多么重要。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