generalspeaking

A Nation's Religious-Social Complexities

India, which vaunts itself as the largest democracy in the world, has a population almost that of China's; well over a billion people. An ancient culture, a fount of diversity in its social, cultural and religious demographics, it has long struggled to fend for itself, to adequately feed and house its huge population.

During the British Raj the country's natural resources were exploited, its people subjugated, but when the British finally left after centuries of colonial rule, they left behind much that was British. The most important of which was British-style jurisprudence, and governance.

A secular, democratic government that struggles to fairly represent all of the country's various social, cultural and religious demographics, the very weight of the mass of humanity, their languages, religions and social customs mitigate against neat solutions. The indigenous Hindu religion is based on the caste system and a rigid structure of social customs.

People born into a particular caste are disadvantaged from birth by social, political and cultural designations leaving them disenfranchised and mostly destitute without opportunities for advancement. And for centuries the Hindu population has lived uneasily with the large Muslim population, each suspicious of the other; from time to time suspicions breaking out into violence.

The large and influential Sikh population has its own cultural-religious imperatives, and the distrust and dislike between them and the other segments of society have been oppressively dysfunctional, leading to atrocities between the various segments. The most obvious and notable violence resulting in crackdowns by the government against militant Sikhism, itself resulting in the assassination of two prime ministers.

And then there is the problem of Christian converts in India. One would think that in this day and age evangelical Christians would no longer feel impassioned about venturing into other countries to bring peoples of other backgrounds and cultures to Christ, but such is obviously not the case. Dalits in particular, those low-caste Indians who live in perpetual degradation and poverty, have been targets for conversion.

Now, irate Hindus have convinced themselves that those among them who have converted to Christianity are unworthy to live among them, as heretics, as foreign elements, as disruptors of society and an affront to tradition and societal culture. Christian villages have been invaded, their attackers on a rampage to "Kill these pigs". Mobs breach through homes displaying posters of Jesus, robbing the homes of valuables and then torching the houses.

Residents who have been insufficiently forewarned, or incapable of fleeing to safety are beaten, sometimes fatally. The Indian Christian converts' allegiance to Christ is indomitable. The missionaries who have converted them have given them a new lease on life. They provide schooling for the children as well as food and assurances of equality, values something denied them culturally.

Small prayer houses and an estimated 80 churches have been destroyed by rampaging mobs of Hindus, along with thousands of homes destroyed or damaged. The clergy serving the population tell of orphanages also being destroyed in the Indian state of Orissa. The fearful refugees take shelter in relief camps, unable to return to their home villages for fear of further reprisals.

In many instances the attackers are recognized as neighbours. A 2001 Indian census revealed a figure of 2.3 percent of the population representing Christian converts. A statistic that infuriates India's Hindu population. There is no assurance that conversion to Christianity, or on occasion Islam, will result in a complete relaxation of caste identity, but the fundamental economic and social conditions of converts is relieved from the usual denial of basic amenities.

Christian missionaries, in their zeal to represent their religion, in their belief that it is their duty to aid and assist the indigent and the hopeless, offer a solution to the condition of hopelessness due to social status. They offer English classes to converts; fluency in that language is a requisite for anyone aspiring to become part of India's growing service businesses.

The information technology industry, steaming full ahead, and responsible for a good portion of the country's growth potential, requires fluency in English. "Across India today, the disenfranchised and repressed people, the tribes and the low castes are exiting the caste system" so entrenched in the Hindu religion, according to the president of the All Indian Christian Council.

Low-caste Indians, in desperation and a need to find a place for themselves in an ancient culture and system built along strict caste lines, are converting to Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and even secular-socialism or Marxist atheism. This has been happening for decades, however, in a slow and desperate struggle to achieve social and economic equality.

V.S. Naipal's book, "India", described in graphic detail the upheaval facing traditional and cultural values as people attempt to advantage themselves and their children toward a future of opportunity, thus far denied them. Indians are traditionally political, prone to violence when exasperated beyond endurance. They live in mean and squalid hovels, even the lower middle-class.

Traditions die slowly, particularly in rural areas where women have conventionally been an underclass of gender. Where young girls are sacrificed to the expedient of early marriages, gravitating to the villages and homes of their husbands, maltreated by their families-by-marriage. And where widows are either still cast out of society to fend for themselves - even by their children - or are forced to join their husbands on the funeral pyre.

Becoming an enlightened society, one that favours equality of opportunity is far easier expressed than accomplished. Although the caste system is legally outlawed, it persists. Although the government is secular and designed to represent the interests of all its people, corruption remains rampant. The civil service remains an area of employment most sought after by ambitious people eager to gain an assured livelihood. Who you know is important.

That Indians are highly intelligent, skilled at technology entrepreneurship and the sciences and arts and manufacture, is undeniable. These opportunities are confined to the fortunes of the middle- and upper-middle class. To be able to offer like opportunities for education to an immense population is a truly daunting undertaking.

Labels: Political Realities, Realities, Religion

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, September 13, 2008