Crediting God: Sovereignty and Religion in the Age of Global Capitalism

6. Should We Be Scared? The Return of the Sacred and the Rise of Religious Nationalism in South Asia

c h a p t e r 6 Should We Be Scared? The Return of the Sacred and the Rise of Religious Nationalism in South Asia Georges Dreyfus The last two decades or so have seen a spectacular transformation in the perception of the importance of religion in the contemporary world among Western intellectuals. Whereas religion was previously dismissed as irrelevant and kept apart from more respectable objects of intellectual discussions, it has emerged as the focus of numerous, though not always well-informed, discussions. This surge in interest follows a worldwide resurgence of religion in the modern world that even the most hardened secularists find hard to deny. Although this resurgence does not affect equally all parts of the planet, it is hard to dispute that in many countries religions, particularly in their most conservative forms, are on the rise. This phenomenon is obvious, but what are less so are the reasons for this rise and the dangers that it represents. One of the explanations often proposed is the thesis of the return of the sacred, the irruption of tradition in a world that had forgotten its sacred roots. This essay argues against this hypothesis, showing that the resurgence of religion is not a return of the repressed past but a function of contemporary developments, particularly of the loss of vitality of some of the fundamental narratives of the Western Enlightenment and of their institutional expressions within the new global context. This situation, I further argue, leads to an increasing focus on identity and thus opens the way to religious traditions, which 117 118 Georges Dreyfus provide rich resources for the formulation of identity in a world where institutional roles offer less support than previously. Thus, the rise of religious movements is not a return to an atavistic past, as it is often portrayed, but a consequence of the extreme individualization of late modernity. This does not mean, however, that it is without its dangers, for as individuals become more committed to these religious traditions, they form new forms of community that often have important political consequences. To illustrate some of the political implications of the rise of conservative religiosity , I focus on South Asia where religious resurgences have led to the rise of religious nationalisms. These ideologies have been adopted by large political movements, which have attempted to impose it as state ideology, with particularly destructive consequences. The essay argues that far from being limited to South Asia, these developments illustrate some of the possible dangers associated with the contemporary religious resurgence, which may be far from benign, contrary to the arguments made by some of the more perceptive scholars of religion. In speaking about the reasons behind the rise of religions in the contemporary world, I proceed comparatively, making sweeping generalizations about cultural and historical processes that vastly differ. This approach is highly problematic, since it is not just politics that is local but history as well. Generalizing some trends out of the complex history of such vastly different cultures without distorting them is impossible. The religious developments examined here take place in countries as different as the United States, Brazil, Nigeria, and India, and to lump them together is dangerous, if not preposterous. Nevertheless, one cannot but be impressed by the similarities in the rise of religious movements in various and not obviously related parts of the world. Hence, it seems hard to avoid theorizing about this phenomenon, despite the pitfalls that such an attempt necessarily entails. I can only hope that some of the insights derived from this approach will outweigh the problems created by its necessary oversimplifications. The Secularization Thesis and Its Predictive Failures Let me start my discussion by emphasizing that although the resurgence of religion is widespread, it is far from universal. There are many countries where the trend toward religious revival is far from clear. The best example is Western Europe, where religion shows little signs of occupying center stage, contrary to the United States. Although it may be argued that 119 The Rise of Religious Nationalism in South Asia there is a renewal of individual interest in religious matters in Western Europe, the place of religion in these cultures is very limited. This was clearly shown in France with the recent debate on the banning of the Islamic scarf and other external signs of religiosity in public places.1 Although most of the religious denominations were united...