Abstract
What accounts for the rise of aggressive communal violence in India? Does religious doctrines govern communal behaviors? What is the link between communal act with the spiritual principles, embedded within Hinduism? This chapter inquires into the contexts that govern religiosity in Hinduism. The first section, conceptualized religious fundamentalism as a form of religiosity. The second section, outlines the core principles from the sacred scriptures, which govern religiosity within Hinduism. The third section, describes the impact of the constitution of India on the religiosity in India. The fourth section, maps the contexts around which the changing forms of religiosity emerges. The fifth section. interrogates communal behaviors by taking into account religious doctrines. By reference to the theoretical framework of Allport and Ross (1967). This paper argues that, first, religiosity within Hinduism has both intrinsic and extrinsic character. Religious scriptures constitute the inherent dimensions of religiosity. Second, the Indian Constitution, judicial activism, the partition of India, commercialization of religion, and symbolism have impacted the religiosity within Hinduism and its religious-spiritual code. While the performative aspects of religiosity superseded religious knowledge. Third, communal behavior stands contrary to the philosophies of the sacred text. Hence, communal action or religious bigotry should be looked at as the extrinsic dimension of religiosity as religion is ‘used’ for individual gains.
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Notes
- 1.
It is a custom among a few particular communities, where a woman immolates herself in the funeral pyre of her dead husband and practicing Sati can be termed as religiosity. A 19th-century social reformer spearheaded a social movement against this kind of religiosity as Raja Ram Mohan. Eventually, the Bengal sati regulation was passed on December 4, 1829, and banned Sati in India. Lord William Bentinck passed the act in 1829.
- 2.
In general, after the death of husband, the widow is expected to live a life of a saint with austerity. They were boycotted from many religious festivals and were even regarded as unlucky. This practice was challenged by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who spearheaded a social movement to abolish these degrading customs. This led to the enactment of ‘The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856. Lord Dalhousie passed this draft legislation. This act removed the restriction on the remarriage of the widows.
- 3.
One customary reason for the practice of child marriage was it secured the purity of the females. This practice let to an increase in the infant mortality rate. Children as young as five years were married by their parents. Social reformers, world opinions against child marriage were increasing. In 1927, Rai sahib Harbilas Sarda introduced this bill. Eventually, the child marriage restraint Act was passed in 1929. The act fixed the age of marriage between boys and girls, i.e. at 14 and 18, respectively. This was revised and increased to 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
- 4.
The practice of Untouchability was a traditional feature of the Indian Caste system. The practice restricts physical touch with people belonging to certain caste or sub-caste groups. The notion of purity and pollution dominated this practice. It was widely believed that persons belonging to lower caste were less pure than upper caste individuals. There were cultural codes of intergroups interaction between members of high caste with members of lower caste.
- 5.
The Constitution of India as on July 31 2018, Government of India.
- 6.
Indian Young Lawyers Association and Ors. Vs. The State of Kerala and Ors. (28.09.2018 - SC): MANU/SC/1094/2018.
- 7.
The India Spend database kept a record of all cow-related violence from 2012–2017 available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TcXbWPH3CGeMwXUfB3kb4IfV86K_uU2sC_q-Ca6UtQ4/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true.
- 8.
Lok Sabha Starred question No 130. The question was asked to the home minister in Lok sabha and was answered on July 25 2017. Retrieved from https://164.100.47.190/loksabhaquestions/annex/12/AS130.pdf on May 15 2019 at 6 p.m.
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Baral, D. (2020). The Contours of Religiosity in Hinduism: Locating Religious Doctrines, Interrogating Communal Behavior. In: Demmrich, S., Riegel, U. (eds) Religiosity in East and West. Veröffentlichungen der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31035-6_10
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