15 Pilgrimages, Festivals and Commodification of Religion

Rupali Sehgal

Introduction

As India is liberalizing and globalizing its economy, the country is experiencing a rise in spiritual market. There is a surge in popular religiosity among the masses as is evident from a boom in pilgrimage and invention of new and more ostentatious rituals. Jeremy Carrette and Richard King (2005) argue convincingly that a consumer capitalist mentality has thoroughly penetrated the world religions. Spirituality has become a commodity on the global market with a wonderful range of options from Zen meditation classes to Shri Shri Ravi Shankar’s sudarshan kriya.

Commodification of religion refers to the process whereby religious symbols are turned into objects/ commodities which can be sold and consumed in the market. The market here refers to the temples and other pilgrimage spots. Besides, the religious commodities have found new homes in swanky new suburbs with malls and multiplexes. It is a process of recontextualization of religious symbols, language, and ideas from their original religious context to the media and consumer culture (Ornella, 2013). Through the purchase of such objects of consumption (for instance, religious figures, books, chaddar and other artifacts) the devotees can offer their prayers and reverence to the Gods. Ironically, this also points towards the commercial side of religion. How religion and its commodification process are controlled by economic interest can best be illustrated from a common phenomenon in temples: pay- for- prayer schemes. Many a times, the better offs would donate gold or expensive religious gift (say for instance, an idol figure) to the temple as part of their more ostentatious expression of devotion and get ‘special’ blessings from the priest.

It is commonly observed that weddings, funerals, birthdays, festivals and any number of daily and calendrical rituals are ‘crowded’ with colorful religious things. The devotees also attach religious/ sentimental values to such consumer commodities like religious idols or sacred books. The consumption of material objects appears to be integral to pilgrimage rituals and transforms the intangible spiritual experience of the pilgrims into something ‘palpable’. The gifts are intended to embody the sacredness of the sites visited by the pilgrims and allow family and friends to partake in their sacred experience (Moufahim, 2013). Such trading of a set of material objects as commodities, which are ultimately consumed as ritual objects by individuals, is the result of not only festivals and pilgrimages but also marketization of the sacred by government (Nanda, 2009).

The purpose of this module is to study role of the market in advertising the importance of rituals, pilgrimages and religious festivals. Further, the process of commodification of religion accentuated by deeper penetration of the market and growing capitalism shall also be discussed. Capturing the details of different aspects of religious economy is the aim of this module. The first section talks about growing commercialization of the religion, the second about sociological relevance of religion to understand commodification process in a better way, the third about the influence of capitalism upon marketisation of sacred and finally a discussion on repercussions of commodification process is made.

Religion and commercialization of the sacred

This section examines the part globalization has played in ushering commodification and commercialization of religion. People are celebrating all sorts of festivals in the globalised set up; from Halloween to Panch Ganpati, the festivals coalesce around the idea of pomp and show and a sense of the new spaces of individualism. The practice of rituals and observance of beliefs is heavily influenced by what is happening around the world. The same idea is also expressed eloquently by Ulrich Beck (2000), one of globalization’s staunch critics:

“Globality means that from now on nothing which happens on our planet is only a limited local event …we must reorient … along a local – global axis” (p. 11)

To commercialize a festival or pilgrimage the market simply need a non-event it can commodify into a cash nexus i.e. exchanging cash for goods or services. Human relationships and mode of productions are reduced to monetary exchange. For instance, to commemorate Navratri Ashtmi Puja the market nowadays is flooded with commercialized gift items which the devotees give to young girls. The girls believed to be in guise of the goddess are given sweets, gifts and money. The relationship between the goddess (disguised as a young girl) and devotee who calls upon the whole ritual can be seen as commodified around monetary transactions. The Celebration of Valentine’s Day is another example where market invented ersatz festivals and commodified the associated rituals of gift giving.

To understand the connection between religion, globalization and commercialization of the sacred we can borrow the idea of ‘Scapes’ outlined by Arjun Appaduria (1996). Following the idea of ‘ethnoscape’ which refers to the migration of people across cultures and borders we observe how the world and its communities are not static but mobile. People migrate to different spaces with their own cultural value systems and this give rise to a new form of value systems on interacting with the value systems of the new spaces. These interactions can produce both the situation of harmony as well as conflict. For instance, many Asian communities settled in USA celebrate their festivals in a westernized manner. They dance on rock Garba and celebrate Diwali in an all together different manner. When ‘ethnoscapes’ gets intertwined with ‘technoscapes’ (It bring about new types on cultural interactions and exchanges through the power of technology) or ‘finanscapes’ (global flows of money) especially on religious lines we observe that it promotes religiosity in a popular sense. For example ‘technoscapes’ can accelerate the speed of flow of information on different lines including those based on religiosity. Technoscapes connect people electronically around the globe and provide an apparently endless supply of religious information from newspapers, discussion groups, online books, policy documents, and religious sites of every kind. The Internet also provides instant access to bizarre cults, crude opinions presented as religious facts—and endless advertisements. Commercial advertisements publicizing divinely lucky charms are not unknown to us. Then comes the ‘mediascapes’ which refer to the rise in media production and distribution e.g. Newspapers, Television, Radio and Film. These forms of media provide the ‘narrative’ to which different communities live their lives and form ‘imagined worlds’ as reality and fiction become indistinct from one another. Then finally comes the ‘ideoscapes’ where we observe that how national governments project certain ideologies and we have seen that how religion in this context has gone through the process of commodification and that how commodification of religion itself is a part of larger religious and political parties.

In this light, it is important to mention the term ‘rush hour of the gods’ as used by H. Neill MacFarland (1967) to describe the proliferation of new expressions of religiosity in Japan in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The term ‘rush hour’ was supposed to signify the overwhelming religious and spiritual options given to the ordinary people through mass media. Such frenzied search for spiritual remedies for material concerns is not uncommon in today’s world. The reflection of these arguments can be also seen in the work of Meera Nanda (2009). The author gives us a detailed analysis of the aspect of commodification of religion at least the way it took place within Hinduism. She sees new Indian religiosity and commodification of religion as a response to India’s headlong rush into the global economy. She says

“There is no doubt that growing religiosity is, at least in part, a response to new socio- psychological needs created by neo- liberalism and globalization” (p. 64)

She gives number of representative examples to show a complex religious landscape where new rituals and new gods are being invented, old gods are being modified, and new gurus are mixing up spiritualism with capitalism and consumerism. Christopher Fuller’s 2003 monograph, Renewal of Priesthood, describes installation of ‘golden cars’ (gold and silver plated chariot like structures) in the famous Meenakshi Temple in Madurai which the devotees can rent for ceremonial processions. Two other invented rituals are drawing huge crowds. The first involves re – enactment of the divine Meenakshi – Sundareshwara wedding and for yet another fee, devotees can also buy the privilege of placing a diamond crown and golden body plates on the idol of Meenakshi. Nanda mentions in her book that these newly invented rituals were being performed at least ten times per month in 1994 -95.

Many old religious observances are finding new, more modern, and consumerist uses. For instance, Akshay Trithiya which falls in the month of May was considered to be astrologically auspicious for marriages and other new ventures. But in its modern and hyper – consumerist face it has now begun to be celebrated as auspicious for buying gold. The presumed auspiciousness of Akshay Trithiya is getting a corporate makeover. Nanda notes that in the year 2006-07, ‘a very conservative estimate’ puts gold purchases on that day at 38 tons, compared with a daily average sale of 2 tons.

Besides, the local deities who were once considered guardians of the community and who protected against diseases like smallpox and other illnesses are now being beseeched for blessings for material success. Numerous offerings are laid in front of the ‘god’ whom people can entrust for all their problems. To mark the God’s omnipotence people have started keeping his miniatures at different places in homes or offices. This is not to mean that such a phenomenon was completely absent in earlier times but the extravagance which the divine has started to be treated with is certainly a new phenomenon. For instance, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar has built a global spirituality programme called Art Of Living which stresses upon yogic breathing to ease tension and pressures of our professional lives. It organizes ‘rock satsangs’ in their Bangalore ashram which draws a crowd of nearly the religiosity. The poor turned out to be twice as religious as the rich. The second explanation is that 3000 people every day. People sing along with and dance to devotional songs.

The question arises why people are increasingly getting religious which has necessitated the need to endorse commodification of religion? How do we explain this religious phenomenon? The new middle elite and middle classes increasingly reveal in ritualism, idol worship, fasts, and other routines of popular spiritual culture. We also observe tremendous rise in pilgrimages. 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). It is therefore important to ask: what motivates people to commodify their religious sentiments? It could also be that in the age of the market certain sections of society have acquired a higher degree of prosperity thus allowing them to participate more effectively in religious festivals and ceremonies. But social theory has two answers though these could not be the hard and fast rules: the first answer has to do with economic well-being. This means that post – industrial societies bears a strong correlation with the level of ‘existential insecurity’. Two Harvard sociologists, Pippa Norris and Roland Inglehart (2004) mapped religiosity against income data from societies in North America, Europe and Japan and found that higher the income level, lower the growing religiosity is a defensive reaction to modernization and westernization. People treat religion and fellow believers as a refuge when they feel alienated from their lives. Meera Nanda says:

“Even the otherwise astute Achin Vanaik accepts the basic idea that those who are receptive to Hindu preachers are in need of a ‘balm’ for the ‘social despair….due to loss of dignity and typically male self respect’ which comes with neo-liberalism” (p. 104)

In the Indian context, she argues that it is not alienation or despair that people feel from their lifestyle but ambivalence over their new found wealth which came with the globalization shift. The modern gurus seem to ease this ambivalence by giving their new wealth a divine stamp of approval. The Bhagvad Gita and the Yoga Sutras have been turned into self-help manuals for making money and achieving success. Nanda says:

“Gurus like Mata Amritanandamayi teach that ‘western’ consumerism creates bad karmic burden which can be negated, or at least ‘balanced’, by performing some of the rituals and pujas she prescribes. To put it somewhat flippantly, the cure for shopping is more shopping – this time for spiritual products and services of gurus and priests. Surely a win – win situation for all involved!” (p. 105)

Another set of questions regarding the commodification of religion can be seen in the light of religious economy. The religious market consists of different producers of religious goods that compete with each other for the sympathies of a particular group of religious consumers. The power struggles in the market generate a proper dynamic and create fashion cycles. In the case of religion, fashion cycles define which types of practice are religiously legitimate and fashionable for certain social groups and which are not. For instance, meditation techniques from Zen and Pranayam to transcendental meditation all have been eulogized by the consumers. In the late modernity, inherited commitments to religious congregation have increasingly lost their strength and the religious individual has become a consumer of religious goods. The ‘consumer’ in this case searches for, compares and selects a meditation technique according to his taste.

Sociological aspect of religion

While discussing the process of commodification of religion and its subsequent causes, it is equally vital to know about the role of rituals, festivals and pilgrimages in man’s life. Why a man participates in festivals and pilgrimages? Durkheim while elaborating upon segmental societies/ mechanical solidarity in his seminal work, the elementary forms of religious life, thought that such religious enactments strengthen individuals’ attachments to each other. Ritual observances and common celebrations increase their attachments to society by consecrating their acts, giving them a common identity that is enacted and re– enacted in the form of festivals and periodic pilgrimages. Religious rites performed during festivals provide them with a form of social representation in which they see themselves as a group with common origins. The special cohesion that emerges during these collective religious enactments ‘absorbs the individual’ into the social mass to the point till the individual becomes almost indistinct. Durkheim (1912) referred to these periodic ceremonies or ritual enactments as ‘effervescent assemblies’ as these intensify social activities across the groups. In addition, their social bonds compel them to recognize social duties toward each other like reciprocal aid, mourning and obligation not to marry among themselves. Such a cohesion and ‘togetherness’ which arises from such participating in festivals or going to a pilgrimage makes it important to ‘solidify’ or ‘commodify’ religious sentiments associated with them. On commodification, religious items in their tangible form can be transferred, exchanged or passed on from one person to another. Commodification can hence, be seen as one way whereby religion can be promoted, intensified or made patriotic. ‘Symbolic’ manifestation (mead) of such a religious cohesiveness can directly be seen while its commodification.

Material things that are commodities of religion as well as ritual objects such as idols, fresh flowers, framed pictures of deities and prayer altars (which house religious icons and insignia) are regarded sacred and holy. Durkheim too, while giving his definition of religion identified two central elementary forms of religious life. The first is the system of beliefs, practices and rites that are practiced towards sacred things and secondly, the tendency in all religions to divide the world into two regions which he called the sacred and profane. Sacred things, thought to be superior in dignity are segregated from profane items which can defile or contaminate the sacred. Commodification of religious items can also be seen as a step towards sanctifying a religion because commodities of religion are held to be highly sacred. A system of rites and social practices arise which set out how the sacred is to be approached and how members of the group are to conduct themselves in the presence of the sacred object.

Festivals and pilgrimages can be seen as one mechanism which can be used to segregate the sacred from the profane. Festivals and pilgrimages are regarded as sacred and provide us with the classificatory model of opposites such as good and evil, clean and dirty, pure and polluted, inside and outside, holy and defiled and so on.

Clifford Geertz in an essay titled “Religion as a Cultural System” (1965) spelled out a definition of religion as a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long lasting moods and motivations in men. In religious symbols, worldview and ethos the way we see the world and the way we live in it seem to fit together perfectly, so much that each reinforces the other. Religious symbols tell us that we ought to live a certain way because the world is a certain way. They also tell us that, because reality is constructed in a particular way, those particular feelings are especially rewarding and those values can, in fact, be fulfilled. For instance, married Hindu women taking rigorous fasts in the name of god so that he may grant health and longevity to her husband are actually praying to religious symbols. They would adorn themselves with red/ pink apparels, cosmetics as a symbol of their married status (Suhaagan). The whole process make those religious moods and behaviors feel valuable especially when the fast as a symbol can give positive meaning to experiences of having one’s own desires to eat denied.

How religion creates capitalism?

The influence of capitalism is also quite evident on the consumption of religious objects/ material religion and vice versa. There are certain social preconditions to economic development like religion. This is so because religion drives culture and social forms which in turn advance development. Legitimacy to trade in religious commodities which are ultimately consumed as ritual objects by devotees is sometimes sanctioned by the religion itself. Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) studied the relationship between the ethics of ascetic Protestantism and the emergence of the spirit of modern capitalism. Weber argues that the religious ideas of groups such as the Calvinists too played a role in creating the capitalistic spirit. Religion as the potential cause of the modern economic conditions is evident because Calvinist religious doctrine value profit and material success as signs of God’s favor. Other religious groups, such as the Pietists, Methodists, and the Baptist sects had similar attitudes to a lesser degree. Weber argues that this new attitude broke down the traditional economic system, paving the way for modern capitalism. However, once capitalism emerged, the Protestant values were no longer necessary, and their ethic took on a life of its own. The result is a well-educated, highly skilled diligent work force and large pools of capital. We are now locked into the spirit of capitalism because it is so useful for modern economic activity.

Consequences of commodification of religion

Graham Ward (2003) argues:

Commodification produces a spectogram or hologram of religion, a bloodless and disembodied “religious cast of mind”: a fantasy of religion, which, like an atmosphere, demands only that we breathe it in. We cannot say the real is enchanted, for there is no place locatable outside this enchantment.

What Ward means to say is probably that commodification of religion fosters the theatre of spectacle by contributing to the simulation and simulacrum process in Baudrillard’s sense. He says,

What is produced by this simulation is not simply the religion of commodification, the pop-transcendence of capitalism, but the commodification of religion—the metamorphosis or transubstantiation (Marx’s two favorite words for describing what takes place through commodity-exchange) of those socially and culturally embedded practices of faith into a misty realm.

Commodification of religion is similar to the packaging of emotions into the compartments of particularistic piety wherein people drive their identity from. For instance, people holding pride while wearing a T- shirt which adorns their god or affixing a sticker of their religious identity over their cars. This phenomenon is very common as we see how people endorse their religious commodities by taking pride with its association. Religion in this way can create more divides and intolerance. An inability to tolerate dissent and dissimilar religious opinion is propagated by people’s attachment with their religious symbols at the backdrop. The violence unleashed in the name of divinity and Godly images has assumed frightening proportions in today’s time.

Today we live in a milieu where festivals and pilgrimages are celebrated with pomp, glitter and hype. Commercialization of faith has diminished any sense of religion as a source of building ethical spirituality. Marketization of religion demands competitive ritualism which can attract customers in huge number. A festive celebration floods the market with devotional items – the more expensive, the better. Newspapers and magazines bring out special glossy editions with advertisements and features of sacred merchandise. Sayantani Jafa (2012) would argue that:

A religious festival unleashes a paroxysm of ‘brand building’, whether in culinary specialties, sartorial trends or a voyeuristic gaze into celebrity worshippers diligently captured by cameos and ‘live telecasts’ on the plethora of round-the-clock television news channels.

Conclusion

When Zygmunt Bauman argues that religion is not innate but a constructed phenomenon, we can see the role of religious commodities that of utmost relevance because such symbols construct long lasting mood and behaviors among individuals (Geertz, 1965). A post modern religion is marked by too many choices in the religious domain which is apparently manifested through numerous Gods available in the market. Now there is emerging a kind of shift in contemporary times where we observe that commodification of spirituality and its appropriation is another major aspect. This commodification and spirituality is the result of other traditions as well which often stir up controversial issues regarding religion. York (2010) argues that until the end of the nineteenth century or later, religion was something into which one was born. A person’s religious conditioning was an automatic and accepted fact. But now he can construct his own religion, given the myriad of options in post modern era.

York further argues that through globalization, capitalism, large scale immigration and with the decline of traditional religious value systems the western individual often faces religious options at a large unprecedented scale. In the present age where flow of information is taking place at an enormous speed, the rate of religious consumerism has also been accelerated. With this new age of information the public comes across varying religious and value based information where they also have the option of discontinue from their own existing value systems. The point for us is to understand that how this process of reconditioning or commodification takes place both at micro and macro level.

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