Abstract
In the post-Cold War period there has been a resurgence of religious-based conflicts worldwide. Religious extremism rooted in major world religions is often pitted against secular states/societies as the source of violent conflict in global politics. In other words the religious and the secular are often projected as binaries. Religious extremists are often characterized as “traditional” and “anti-modern”. In this paper I argue that religious extremism is distinctly modern, thereby sharing a great deal in common with the “secular”. In order to demonstrate my claims, I look historically at how religion was first secularized in European history through the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants and in turn how this has affected other religions by focusing on two major ones, Islam and Hinduism in South Asia. Political Hinduism and political Islam both gradually underwent a process of secularization once introduced to modern scientific ideas via colonialism, akin to what Christianity experienced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe. I argue that the emphasis on nationalism and the alignment of religion with nation represents an important moment in the secularization of religion in the subcontinent. Both Hinduism and Islam were redefined and reconfigured by Hindu and Muslim political elites from the late nineteenth century onwards to create secular identities to “fit” that of the nation and defy traditional religious boundaries and geographies of time and space. An ongoing secularization of these religions (post the creation of a religion-based state, Pakistan) has only brought them closer to secularism rather than being opposed to it, which is generally the claim. Therefore, a more nuanced view of the relationship between the “religious” and “secular” is required.
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Notes
- 1.
Maiden (2016).
- 2.
Panikkar (2004).
- 3.
Andersen and Damle (1987), p. 73.
- 4.
Nanda (2014), p. 5.
- 5.
Kemal (2004), pp. 135–152.
- 6.
Roy (2002), p. 15.
- 7.
Roy (2007), p. 63.
- 8.
Iqtidar (2011), p. 157.
- 9.
Roy (2007), p. 63.
- 10.
Roy (2007), p. 64.
- 11.
Roy (2002), p. 40.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Basu (2002), p. 199.
- 15.
The claims of some Indian public figures in recent years that Jinnah was a secularist especially from the BJP such as L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh which drew considerable opposition within their party is true. Many secularists and modernists in Pakistan also have highlighted Jinnah’s secular ideas that Pakistan will be a modern democratic state. It was Jinnah’s constant refusal to make Pakistan an Islamic state that made all Mullahs and Maududis turn against him.
- 16.
Savarkar (1969), p. 4.
- 17.
M.S. Golwalkar was appointed head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, in June 1940. Golwalkar also expressed a virulent anti-Muslim sentiment. However unlike Savarkar he did not eschew language of the divine. See Andersen and Damle (1987) for more about Golwalkar.
- 18.
Appaiah (2003), pp. 64–68.
- 19.
It is likely that Modi’s “final solution” to the “problem” of Muslims in India would be vehemently opposed by the earlier Hindu “revivalists” such as Bankim, Vivekananda and Tilak. Modi has been using religious polarization as an instrument to consolidate voters and continues to be in power. Anti-Muslim bigotry remarks and violence under his rule has not been punished. The majority of his election campaign speeches are against India’s past history like Jinnah, Tipu Sultan and Nehru, which promotes the Hindu backlash against Muslims.
- 20.
Savarkar (1969), p. 3.
- 21.
Savarkar (1941), p. 260.
- 22.
Savarkar (1969), p. 113.
- 23.
Pirzada (1981), p. 31.
- 24.
The Khaksars often opposed Jinnah and the Muslim League. One of them even tried to attack and harm Jinnah. They did not believe the League represented their interests adequately.
- 25.
Pirzada (1981), p. 393.
- 26.
Pirzada (1981), p. 337.
- 27.
Jawed (1997), p. 91.
- 28.
Quoted in Wolpert (1984), p. 339.
- 29.
Quoted in Wolpert (1984), p. 436.
- 30.
Pal (1983), p. 8.
- 31.
Ayesha Jalal points to these differences in her piece “Exploding Communalism: The Politics of Muslim Identity in South Asia” in Jalal (1997).
- 32.
The trouble was that the Jami’at were propagating widely that the Muslim League did not have the support of the ulema. This was of great concern to Jinnah because the support of the ulema had to be earned at any cost.
- 33.
Jalal (1997), p. 82.
- 34.
Jalal (1997), p. 83.
- 35.
- 36.
It was Tej Bahadur Sapru who helped him translate a document that he needed as a lawyer to decipher in a court case. The document was written in Arabicized Persian. See Jawed (1997), p. 18.
- 37.
Zakaria (2004), p. 65.
- 38.
Jawed (1997), p. 233.
- 39.
Quoted in Jawed (1997), p. 234.
- 40.
Khairi (1995), pp. 9–11.
- 41.
Khan (1989), p. 21.
- 42.
In the 1906 inaugural session of the Muslim League in Dacca, the only prominent Muslim who came out strongly against the idea of separate electorates was Jinnah. He argued “our principle of separate electorates was dividing the nation against itself”, quoted in Wolpert (1984), p. 26.
- 43.
Jalal (1985).
- 44.
Wolpert (1984), p. 338.
- 45.
Wolpert (1984), p. 339.
- 46.
Devare (2011).
- 47.
He was born Muhammad Ali Jinnahbhai but later changed his name to M.A. Jinnah to Anglicize it.
- 48.
See Jawed (1997) for these details.
- 49.
Wolpert (1984), p. 18.
- 50.
Ispahani (1967), p. 108.
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Gaffar, A. (2020). Rethinking the Religion/Secularism Binary in Global Politics. In: Hensold, J., Kynes, J., Öhlmann, P., Rau, V., Schinagl, R., Taleb, A. (eds) Religion in Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41388-0_13
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