32 Globalization and Religion

Rupali Sehgal

Globalization has been outlined by David Harvey (1990) as space – time compression. Arguing in the same line Meera Nanda (2009) says:

“Globalization can be understood as the sum total of processes that have brought about this space – time compression to the point when, at least in principle, anyone, from any place on earth, can instantaneously communicate with anyone, anywhere on this planet.” (pp. 15)

Although we may associate the growth of globalization with the development of modern communication technology, but Turner (2006) and other scholars believe that this compression of time and space started from the end of the nineteenth century when colonialism was at its peak. He argues that from a cultural or civilizational perspective globalization can be seen to have much older roots and that creation of trans – planetary communication networks (Nanda, 2009) since 1970s with the introduction of neoliberalism and financial deregulation is something radically new. He cites examples for ancient forms of cultural globalization – Buddhist missionary activity in Asia and beyond, the spread of Sanskrit in Asia, the Olympic Games, the spread of the western calendar, the global adoption of firearms, the expansion of Sufi brotherhoods or the adoption of printing.

This module is divided into four sections. In the first section, we look at how globalization has been defined by scholars, more specifically in relationship with the category of religion. In section two, we look at what globalization has done to religion in contemporary times. In section three, we look at the rise of the spiritual market under globalization. Finally, in section four, we look at the impact of globalization upon diasporic religious communities.

Section-I

Defining the globalization-religion relationship

T.K Oomen (2003) on the other hand traces the globalization of culture from geographical explorations of the sixteenth century and colonialism which followed it. Before that people were in contact but this contact was confined to the immediate regions. Whereas with colonialism and colonial construction of culture the world came to be recognized in an all together different way, the cultural discourse of colonialism also created a division between the culture of the old world and the new modern world. The people from ‘old and traditional’ societies were constructed as ‘others’ by the colonialists. Oomen call these constructs of culture as ‘savage other’, the ‘black other’ and the ‘oriental other’ (2003).

But the question arises how globalization is different from other forms of conquest and colonization? David Lehmann (2004) summarizes the phenomenon of contemporary globalization as distinct from early forms of colonization in a very concrete manner:

“Unlike the empires of the past, we have here a model in which all manner of frontiers (political, economic, cultural, religious) are apparently breached and even reduced to nothing in the creation of a seamless web of market relations and of the legal and humanitarian institutions of capitalist democracy and global rules of governance. In a globalized world of democratic capitalism, all authority is expected to be rational and impersonal, all economic agents to be optimizing automata, and religion a matter of private personal choice experienced in an institutional setting governed by the same democratic principles as the state itself.” (pp. 409)

Religion, he says in spite of being a personal affair is influenced by the transmitted ideas of a globalized world. Religion, being an important component of culture, needs to be discussed in the light of cultural globalization. Religion drives culture and social forms which is also evident from the definitions given by some eminent sociologists like Durkheim (1912) or Clifford Geertz (1965). Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices or it is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long lasting moods and motivations in men.

Religion and globalization can, in various manifestations, be seen as partners. History pays testimony to the fact that the growth and influence of Christianity was a result of a link between its own global ambitions and the expansion of various political and economic regimes. Elements of similar historical pattern can be found in Buddhism, Islam, and other faiths as well. (Introduction in Hedgehog review titled religion and globalization, Vol 4 (2). 2000)

Section-II

Globalization and Religion in the contemporary world

Globalization has led to massive social changes in the world. Undoubtedly, religion is not immune from these changes and their burgeoning effects brought about by globalization. This also includes rapid changes in the moral beliefs and value system of people. New religious networks are emerging which are transnational in character. As globalization disembeds religions from their historic homelands and scatters them around the world we can clearly observe how social processes try to globalize a particular religion. For instance, the way Hindu temples and ashrams are becoming increasingly transnational and how African and Korean churches are booming in Europe and North America (Nanda, 2009) is relatively a new phenomenon. John Zavos (2012) refers to three organizations: the National Council for Hindu Temples (NCHT), the Hindu Council UK (HCUK) and the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB). Together these three organizations purporting to represent Hindus have developed a public profile in the UK over a period of 30 years. They have a significant role to play in the public representation of Hindu – ness. It is also surprising to see how in most of Europe, including in France where the age of enlightenment originated, beliefs in occult powers and reincarnation (Johnson, 2007) have gained firm grounds. Therefore, we can say that globalization has played a tremendous role in the revivalism and resurgence of some religions as they are today not relegated to the few countries where their roots began (Azzouzi, 2013). As Jan Aart Scholte (2005) makes clear:

“accelerated globalization of recent times has enabled co-religionists across the planet to have greater direct contact with one another. Global communications, global organizations, global finance and the like have allowed ideas of the transworld Umma of Muslims and the universal Christian church to be given concrete shape as never before.” (pp. 245)

It is here, that Appadurai’s idea of mediascape and technoscape (1996) needs to be mentioned. When we see growing number of T.V. channels, radio stations and print media founded solely for advocating religious values, the role of media in the globalization process becomes observable. For instance, we see how India’s devotional channels like Aastha, Sanskar, MH1 Shraddha, Bhakti TV and God Asia are gaining popularity. Taking Islam as an example, we find T.V channels like Iqrae, Ennass, Majd, El Houda, Erahma, etc. which are purely religious channels created for the purpose of strengthening and the fortification of Islam (Azzouzi, 2013). Besides, as the technology grew under globalization, improvements in the transportation means contributed considerably to the emergence, revivalism and fortification of religion. In this respect, Bryan Turner (2007) states that:

“Islamic revivalism in Asia is related to the improvement in transportation that has allowed many Muslims to travel to Mecca, and return with reformist ideas” (pp 163)

When people move across the borders they also carry with themselves their ideas, values and belief systems. They constitute a landscape (In Appadurai’s language an ‘ethnoscape’) and together they appear to affect the politics of nations. For instance, Punjabi Sikhs settled in Canada enjoy a larger say in their government. This was evident from the 42nd Canadian federal elections where 18 Punjabis were elected as members of the House of Commons (Parliament) of Canada. Vertovec (2000) also records that the patterns of migration and settlement creates social conditions that encourage caste and regionally defined groups to invest in the institutionalization of religious practices. That is why, by 1983, NCHT listed 32 temples across Britain as members, rising to 88 at the current time (Zavos, 2012). Another example of ethnoscape can be seen with the early Buddhists who travelled from Northern India to China and Japan and spread stories of the Buddha and his teachings wherever they went. Although digital technology now allows religious ideas to be communicated quickly through websites and video, personal interaction remained the most effective means of dissemination at that time. Christian Pentecostalism spread successfully in the 20th century from North and South America to Africa and Asia chiefly as a result of travelling missionaries who brought their Gospel message to new communities. Similarly, religious values and ideas being central to people’s culture also have an influence over the ideologies of other people. Ideas travel at a much faster rate in the globalised world which alter and get altered by other’s views. In the process of borrowing, transmitting and exchanging cultural products, very often an ideology is also transmitted, which can be understood as Ideoscape (Appadurai, 1996). Oomen (2003) also argues that though material culture has a high propensity to spread but non – material or symbolic dimension of the culture gradually follows. So much so that that the idea of cultural lag as propounded by Ogburn (1964) do exist in sociology. Hence, religious values and norms of a particular region can travel across the borders and help not others remain intact from the external influence.

Although it is doubtful whether we can confidently propose an idea of ‘global religion’ in the present times because a global religion would have to presuppose a global community where people must share common beliefs, experiences and sentiments. Turner (2006) argues that unfortunately global networks are too thin and fragile to serve as the social carriers of a shared set of symbols and practices. Therefore, he says that it would be misleading to talk about religion as a homogeneous phenomenon. Even David Lehmann (2009) argues on the similar lines that a universal region is hard to establish:

“When religion crosses frontiers or breaks through barriers, even when it does so in the most violent manner, the outcome cannot be the abolition of one set of religious beliefs and practices by another, just as attempts to promote a universal God encompassing all religions never make headway, however tolerant and inclusive that vision may be.” (pp. 410)

On the contrary, globalization may bring about the unpacking of local cultural complexes. It may also create multifarious local identities so much so that diversity is seen in local spaces. To illustrate with examples, Caribbean Pentecostal Churches, Nigerian ‘Aladura’ Churches or branches of the

Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa in Britain and Ghanaian Pentecostal churches are so different from any British religious institution (Lehmann, 2004).

Turner (2006) further argues that in the globalized world, local (or mass religion) and the elite religion interact to result in religious glocalisation which means “the simultaneity — the co-presence — of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies” (Robertson, 1992). For instance, Vale Do Amanhecer is a rapidly expanding Brazilian religion where elements of Christianity, Brazilian indigenous beliefs and European spiritism appear merged together with Afro – Brazilian traditions.

Oomen (2003) argues that there is no possibility of a global culture as there are four interrelated processes involved in its creation: homogenization, pluralization, traditionalization and hybridization. Homogenization refers to popularization and diffusion of cultural symbols to reduce cultural diversity (Jennings, 2010). The homogenization thesis proclaims that global culture is becoming standardized around a Western or American pattern. Rapid communication and constant flow of products across the borders often give us the impression of homogenization. For instance, popularity of blue jeans or pop music or democratic ideas can be seen as part of homogenizational process. It is important to remember here, that homogenization can often lead to hegemonization i.e. assimilation of the minority and weaker groups into the mainstream. From the religious perspective, it can be seen that the attempts of extreme Hindu right, the Sangh Parivar in India is believed to impose its homogenizing fascism on the lines of Brahmanic ethos. There have been repeated attempts by such Hindutva groups to bring homogeneity by forced conversions and communal tensions. Increasing incidences of violence against Muslims, Christians and Dalits especially in the decade of 1980s were conducted by different organizations like BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch and Hindu Munnani for the specific agenda of homogenization of Hindutva politics (Puniyani, 2000).

T.N Madan (1993) on the contrary says that Hinduism which is demographically dominant and even hegemonic is nothing but a federation of faiths. It has both horizontal and vertical distribution rather than a single homogenous religion. In this line, we can say that pluralism and not homogeneity is inherent in Hinduism because it comprises many regional cultural groups. Pluralization implies existence and practice of more than one forms of culture simultaneously.

A reactive process to the phenomenon of homogenization and hegemonization by the weaker culture results in revivalism leading to traditionalization. It stresses a return to traditional values of hard work, craftsmanship, local culture, tribal or clan orientation, and non-material values in response to an excess of materialism, consumerism and technology. For instance, Paganists are often seen to stress a return to old cultural values that predated the existence of the state system or Gandhi’s romanticisation of village life over industrial cities can be seen as traditionalism.

And lastly, if in the process of adaptation we retain some of the traditional aspects and intertwine them with some modern aspects this is a process usually referred to as hybridization. For instance, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has built a global spirituality programme conduct ‘rock satsangs’ in his Bangalore ashram almost every evening where people sing along and dance to his devotional songs. It is one of the clearest manifestations of hybridization where rock music is blended with traditional and devotional touch to cater to the needs of Indian masses. Following Arjun Appadurai (1996), we can call such global markets for religion as the ‘religioscape of modernity’

Bryan turner (2006) argues that glocalisation has also somewhat blurred the distinction between what Weber (1996) calls virtuoso and mass religion. He differentiates between the two as this: the religion of the elite satisfies the moral and intellectual needs of religious virtuosi and the religion of the masses caters to the thaumaturgical interests of the disprivileged. Accessibility to ancient religious texts by people from all rungs of Indian society can be seen as an apt example of glocalisation. The way Sanskritic texts like Upanishads and Vedas are now open to the mass interpretation were kept reserved for the elite Brahmnins in India.

Lehmann (2004) says that the interaction of religion and globalization seems to change boundaries in two ways: one, which he calls cosmopolitan, brings old practices to new groups in new settings – a variant of disembedding. For instance, reshaping of Eastern religion outside Asia in the form of transcendental mediation, yogic breathing practices, etc. The other variant, which he calls global, extends and intensifies transnational links among groups similar in their practices and creates tightly knit communities of people. For example, Pentecostals, the pietist Muslim revival movement Tablighi Jama’at and ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects and cultures.

Section-III

The rise of spiritual market

However, we cannot ignore the observable changes in the spiritual market with the coming up of globalized economy and rise of mass consumer markets. As a consequence of global communication we now witness a spiritual market place of popular kitsch religiosity. Nanda writes:

“Old and new god – men and gurus are doing thriving business in India’s spiritual supermarket. They offer a theology of prosperity which combines fashionable new age spirituality with discourses on the Bhagwad Gita and Vedanta, all suitably reinterpreted as successful management tools.” (pp 107)

The neo – Hindu cults driven by a new concept of guru who is leader of a spiritual movement or organization now focus on this – worldly concerns derived from modern western technologies of self healing, highlighting transcendental meditation and yoga rather reincarnation and karma in South Asian religious cultures. New rituals and new gods are being invented in the market where spiritualism is mixed with capitalism and consumerism. Examples are plenty to illustrate the process of commodification of religion. The Gayatri Parivar’s novel and scientific interpretation of the Gayatri Mantra and the horse yajna invented a whole new way of explaining the significance of a ritual. Nanda (2009) notes that apart from popularizing the Gayatri Mantra and yajnas, the Parivar also offers courses in moral upliftment and stress management to the government and private sector professionals. Besides, the local gods and goddesses which were until recently associated with the more plebeian masses, are finding new homes in swanky new suburbs with malls and multiplexes. Globalization if on the one hand has led to the commodification of religion; it also created a religious surge among the masses, as is evident from a boom in pilgrimage and invention of new and more ostentatious rituals (Nanda, 2009). According to a recent study by the NCAER (www.ibef.org), ‘religious trips account for more 50 percent of all packages tours, much higher than leisure tour packages at 28 percent.’ The most recent figures show that in 2004, more than 23 million people visited the Balaji temple at Tirupati, while 17.25 million trekked to the mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi (Nanda, 2009). The statistics conform to the global pattern propounded by Lehmann (mentioned above) where globalization has created strong transnational ties of belonging and similarity by visiting religious places and pilgrimages. They accentuate transnational homogeneity. This can even apply to Political Islam, to the innumerable evangelical and Charismatic churches, sects and tendencies descended from the Protestant tradition and associated with names such as the Assemblies of God as well as with the Prosperity Gospel or Gospel of Health and Wealth (Lehmann, 2009).

How globalization has encouraged Hinduism: The case of India

The phenomenon of globalization buttresses the neo – liberal ideology too. The core of neo – liberalism is the belief that unconstrained market forces will bring prosperity, democracy and peace to all people in all societies. The underlying principle is that the borderless markets should lead without the government intervention (Nanda, 2009). While privatization, disinvestment and deregulation are the pillars of neo – liberalism the state is not made entirely irrelevant. The state’s topmost priority under the regime of neo – liberal globalization is to facilitate the smooth running of the markets. Much of the contemporary critique of neoliberalism can be traced to the works of Karl Polanyi (1944). He argues that the laissez – faire system came into existence with the help of the state. Expansion of the free market and the self protective reaction against it by the state and the society is called ‘double movement’ (D. Hall, 2007). Polanyi’s hope lay with society and the nation-state but today they have been rendered less powerful with the rise of globalization (Ritzer, 2011). On the contrary, what is emerging is that neo liberalism is changing the texture of democracy: the accumulation of private profit has become the highest social good that the government promotes (Nanda, 2009). For instance, Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister who wanted to turn Hyderabad into Cyberabad was aided by the World Bank to commercialize the agriculture in 1997- 2005 during the time period when neo – liberalism was the reigning ideology of the state government. Meera Nanda (2009) writes that when government becomes more like a for-profit corporation, the citizens are rendered to the position of consumers. Their relationship with the state changes from that of citizens to that of clients of government services. This model of market place is encouraged by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund where the better off and more educated ‘customers – citizens’ manage to get more choices while the poor are bypassed. With the fall in public investment and growth of the commercialized agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, as noted above, many poor farmers and indebted laborers committed suicide. John Harris (2008) exemplifies this point by showing that how participation in civil society institutions is heavily skewed towards only those with higher incomes and higher levels of education. What we are witnessing today is not the government’s control over the problems of free market (something which Polanyi had hoped for) but profit – seeking approach of the state.

A triangular relationship that has emerged between the state, the corporate and the Hindu leaders in India which Meera Nanda (2009) calls a ‘state – temple – corporate complex’ has created new institutional spaces where maximization of profits through Hinduism is renewing itself. She further writes that Indian state and its functionaries operate on the unstated assumption that Hinduism is not merely one religion among other religions of the Indian people, but rather the national ethos, or the way of life, that all Indians must learn to appreciate, if not actually live by. She writes:

“Having grown up on a steady diet of religious, media, and other cultural discourses that constantly package Hindu signs and symbols as the essence of Indian culture, it has become almost second nature for educated Indians to conflate the two. Now that India is becoming an important player in the global market, many are beginning to ascribe the country’s success to the superiority of Hindu values” (pp. 106)

There are two broad areas where an outright influence of globalization can be seen upon Hinduism in India: education and tourism (Nanda, 2009). With the commercialization of higher education in India new priest training schools and deemed universities are mushrooming. Meera Nanda records how such universities produce English – speaking, computer – using pujaris, astrologers, vaastu shastris and other providers of religious services. She argues that under the previous BJP administration, the UGC had approved BA and even MA and Ph.D level courses in subjects like Vedic astrology and had pushed for courses in vastu shastra and karmakanda. Privatization has not just turned higher education into a business; it has opened it to the business of God and God men as well. Gurus and swamis are entering into the business of conferring degrees in priestcraft and astrology and even setting up modern institutions with a traditionalist bent. The best example could be Sri Sri University set up by the spiritual leader Shri Shri Ravi Shankar in 2009 which boasts its tag line as ‘Holistic modern education combined with ancient Indian values’. Besides, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYAS) in Bangalore and Bihar Yoga Bharati in Fort Munger in Bihar offer advanced degrees all the way to Ph.Ds in yogic sciences. Further, the Sandipani Pratishthan established in 1987, an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Human Resource Development funds gurukuls all across the country and serves as their accrediting body.

Another sector where the corporate and even the state are making a common cause with Hinduism is the religious tourism. It is quite common to see how temple management departments are actively trying to turn some remote temple into a pilgrimage spot by inventing a history behind it. For instance, the newly invented rituals like gold car in temples of Tamil Nadu or the reenactment of the Shiva and Parvati wedding. Another example to show government’s involvement in propagating religious tourism can be seen in the fact that how Devaswom board of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala in full complicity with the government’s electricity board was involved in the fraud of lighting the ‘divine light’ also called Makaravilakku for which millions of pilgrims turn out every year (‘Makaravilakku is lit by hand: Tantri’ in The Hindu, May 28, 2008). Writing in 1982, Franklin Presler described how Tamil Nadu’s HRCE tried to turn many temples in the state into pilgrimage centers by publicizing them. Likewise, in James Preston’s study of 1985 of the Chandi temple in Cuttack, Orissa, he found that the temple priests, local business men and the state government worked together to maximize the profit from the tourists by publicizing the temple’s prestige.

Section-IV

Impact of globalization upon diasporic religious communities

The internet and other means of mass communication holds the diasporic community together as it provides an obvious method for dialogue within and between diasporic groups but at the same time, Turner (2006) notes, that the unintended consequence of globalization is often that the diasporic politics and their intellectual elites come to depart radically from tradition, building up their own internal notions of authority, authenticity and continuity. Perhaps the most useful discussion of the diaspora and the information superhighway is to be found in Peter Mandaville’s Transnational Muslim Politics (2001). He records how many young Muslims learn about Islam from pamphlets and sources in English, for example, The Muslim News and QjNews. Because internet access is often too expensive in the Middle East and Asia, Muslim students in Western universities accessing the net for religious and political communication are the principal audience of global Islam. Turner (2006) argues that the internet tends to promote rational argument in a context where the traditional gatekeepers of Muslim orthodoxy are bypassed and everybody can, in principle, check the religious sources for themselves. In conclusion, Mandaville (2001) argues that the internet is an important technology for creating an imagined community for individuals and groups that are separated from their homeland and residing in alien (often secular) cultures that are hostile to Islam.

The globalization of religion in the twentieth century has strong connections with the evolution of a global business ethic and global corporations. One aspect of the Appadurai’s global religioscape is the adoption and adaptation of religions to the social needs of new middle classes. For instance, in the Welsh countryside of Great Britain, Turkish migrants have brought their ‘whirling dervishes’ to village life, where the local inhabitants are made to believe that whirling is psychologically good for them. Yoga practices from Hinduism have been widely adopted in the West where practice is stripped of its spiritual significance and developed merely as a meditation technique. Such flows of religious beliefs in the globalized world also threaten to denude them of their authentic meaning and significance.

Conclusion

Peter Berger (2003) says that virtually all religious communities are today, if not globalizing, reaching across the borders of their traditional territories. But they differ in their intention or capacity to create new forms of modernity. For instance, we discussed Oomen’s take on homogenization, traditionalization, pluralization and hybridization. Globalization has not only disembedded religions from their historic homelands but also led to the resurgence of spiritual market. Next, we also saw how with the advent of globalization and neoliberalism Hindu religiosity is facilitated by the Indian state and corporate interests. Meera Nanda (2009) argues that new religiosity of middle class Indians which has been aggravated by globalization is openly ritualistic, ostentatious and nationalistic. Globalization also opened the avenues for private education which is today surreptitiously bringing religion into the school and college instruction. The Indian state entered into partnership with the corporate in order to accumulate capital has opened new institutional spaces where Hinduism can renew itself. The effect of globalized economy can also be seen on diasporic communities who negotiate with their religion in different forms.

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