Of syncretic Indian values unseen in the West

Asad Mirza, Indo-Asian News Service

For most political parties, sociologists and psephologists what a common Indian on the street thinks matters most. It is an insight into a common man’s psyche, which allows them to strategies and formulate new plans and narratives. Though the political parties are able to set the narrative for their own narrow agendas yet they are unable to control the common perceptions and thinking among the populace.

Studies like a recent one by the US-based Pew Research Centre’s Survey of Religion across India, helps not just the narrative formulators but also offers a peep into the common man’s psyche. The recent Pew study based on nearly 30,000 face-to-face interviews of adults conducted in 17 languages between late 2019 and early 2020 (pre-COVID-19), finds that Indians of all religious backgrounds overwhelmingly say they are very free to practice their faiths.

Religious Tolerance: Indians see religious tolerance as a central part of who they are as a nation. Across the major religious groups, most people say it is very important to respect all religions to be “truly Indian”. And tolerance is a religious as well as a civic value: Indians are united in the view that respecting other religions is a very important part of what it means to be a member of their own religious community.

Yet, despite sharing certain values and religious beliefs ‘as well as living in the same country, under the same constitution’ members of India’s major religious communities often don’t feel they have much in common with one another. The majority of Hindus see themselves as very different from Muslims (66 per cent), and most Muslims return the sentiment, saying they are very different from Hindus (64 per cent).

Tolerance: Indians, then, simultaneously express enthusiasm for religious tolerance and a consistent preference for keeping their religious communities in segregated spheres meaning they live together yet separately. These two sentiments may seem paradoxical, but for many Indians they are not.

Indeed, many take both positions, saying it is important to be tolerant of others and expressing a desire to limit personal connections across religious lines. Indians who favour a religiously segregated society also overwhelmingly emphasise religious tolerance as a core value.

In other words, Indians’ concept of religious tolerance does not necessarily involve the mixing of religious communities. While people in some countries may aspire to create a “melting pot” of different religious identities, many Indians seem to prefer a country more like a patchwork fabric, with clear lines between groups.

This is what I ascribe to the syncretic Indian values, which you’ll not be able to see in any western society. The Indians in spite of all differences and antagonisms try to view themselves as colours of a rainbow, which India is and this is what makes India, united.

Dimensions of Hindu nationalism in India: The survey reports that Hindus tend to see their religious identity and Indian national identity as closely intertwined: Nearly two-thirds of Hindus (64%) say it is very important to be Hindu to be “truly” Indian.

Most Hindus (59 per cent) also link Indian identity with being able to speak Hindi. And these two dimensions of national identity —being able to speak Hindi and being a Hindu — are closely connected. Among Hindus who say it is very important to be Hindu to be truly Indian, almost 80 per cent also say it is very important to speak Hindi to be truly Indian.

Overall, among those who voted in the 2019 elections, three-in-10 Hindus take all three positions: saying it is very important to be Hindu to be truly Indian; saying the same about speaking Hindi; and casting their ballot for the BJP.

Indian Muslims: Vast majority of India’s Muslims say Indian culture is superior. Today, India’s Muslims almost unanimously say they are very proud to be Indian (95 per cent), and they express great enthusiasm for Indian culture: Eighty-five per cent agree with the statement that “Indian people are not perfect, but Indian culture is superior to others”.

Overall, one-in-five Muslims say they have personally faced religious discrimination recently, but views vary by region. Relatively few Muslims say their community faces “a lot” of discrimination in India (24 per cent). In fact, the share is similar to the share of Hindus who say Hindus face widespread religious discrimination in India (21 per cent).

In addition, most Muslims across the country (65 per cent), along with an identical share of Hindus (65 per cent), see communal violence as a very big national problem.

Muslims’ desire for religious segregation does not preclude tolerance of other groups — again similar to the pattern seen among Hindus. Indeed, a majority of Muslims who favour separate religious courts for their community say religious diversity benefits India.

South v/s North: The survey consistently found that people in the South (the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, and the union territory of Puducherry) differ from Indians elsewhere in the country in their views on religion, politics and identity.

For example, by a variety of measures, people in the South are somewhat less religious than those in other regions — 69 per cent say religion is very important in their lives, versus 92 per cent in the Central part of the country.

Hindu nationalist sentiments also appear to have less of a foothold in the South. Among Hindus, those in the South (42 per cent) are far less likely than those in Central states (83 per cent) or the North (69 per cent) to say being Hindu is very important to be truly Indian. And in the 2019 parliamentary elections, the BJP’s lowest vote share came from the South. In the survey, just 19 per cent of Hindus in the region say they voted for the BJP, compared with roughly two-thirds in the Northern (68 per cent) and Central (65 per cent) parts of the country who say they voted for the ruling party.

Other contentious issues: Most Indian Muslims opposed triple talaq. Fifty-six per cent said Muslim men should not be allowed to divorce this way. Still, 37 per cent of Indian Muslims say they support triple talaq, with Muslim men (42 per cent) more likely than Muslim women (32 per cent) to take this position. A majority of Muslim women (61 per cent) opposed triple talaq.

Similarly many Indians, across a range of religious groups, say it is very important to stop people in their community from marrying into other religious groups. Roughly two-thirds of Hindus in India want to prevent inter-religious marriages of Hindu women (67 per cent) or Hindu men (65 per cent). Even larger shares of Muslims feel similarly: Eighty per cent say it is very important to stop Muslim women from marrying outside their religion, and 76 per cent say it is very important to stop Muslim men from doing so.

The survey throws up many findings which may sound contradictory and unbelievable, yet they represent the true feelings of Indians, however convoluted they may be. And this contradictory yet assimilating feeling is what makes India what it is.