Day 24 – Q 4.Has globalisation led to enhanced secularisation in India? Critically comment.

4. Has globalisation led to enhanced secularisation in India? Critically comment. 

क्या वैश्वीकरण के कारण भारत में धर्मनिरपेक्षता बढ़ी है? समालोचनात्मक टिप्पणी करें।

Introduction:

Globalisation is the ongoing process that is linking people, neighbourhoods, cities, regions and countries much more closely together than they have ever been before. Secularization refers to the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural significance.

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Globalisation led to enhanced secularisation in India in following ways:

Access to education:

• Globalisation has aided in the explosion of information on the web that has helped in greater awareness among people about various religions, customs, practices and the concept of secularism itself. It also had led to questioning the age-old exploitative traditions like Devadasi and Triple-talaq.

Employment:

• There is an increase in the number of multinational companies operating in India. MNC’s recruit based on talent, not based on affiliation to religion or caste.
• The Teamwork concept in such companies promotes brotherhood between persons of different religions and enhances secularisation.

Urbanization:

• It has been estimated that by 2050 more than 50% of India’s population will live in cities. The boom of services sector and city-centric job creation has led to increasing rural to urban migration. It is observed that Urban areas are more secular than in rural areas. People eat together, increased instances of inter-faith marriages are seen in urban areas. 

Increased exposure to Different cultures:

• Globalisation has increased the exposure of a variety of cultures and religions in the form of movies, festivals, cuisine. These all are increasing understanding of other religion from their lens.

Globalisation hasn’t led to enhanced secularisation in India:

Communal Politics:

• As long as Political parties rely on Vote bank politics, instances of communal flareups continue to rise. The Gujarat riots of 2002, Muzzafarnagar riots of 2013 show that Globalisation has no or very little impact on the secularisation of India. 

Spread of Communal violence:

• Globalisation made communal hatred and violence borderless. Even peaceful countries such as New Zealand (Christ church attack), European countries like France, Britain etc., are victims of communal violence.

Spread of Intolerance:

• An increase in stereotyping of a particular religion has crept all over the world. Eg. Islam religion as perpetrator of terrorism.
• These stereotypes increase the amount of intolerance in society and hinder the process of secularisation of a nation.

Technology:

• Availability of technology is an outcome of Globalisation, sometimes they act negatively as a means to spread religious fundamentalism. Eg.- Radicalisation of youth by ISIS, Spread of fake news and resultant mob lynchings.

These processes hinder secularisation of India as a whole.

Conclusion

India is a land of pluralism. The highly diverse nature of our culture is the uniting strength of India. Globalization to an extent acted as a unifying force but monitored access would help India enhance secularisation and preserve its multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-caste society.