Critically examine the influence of religion on contemporary india politics.
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Answer:
India is a land of religious diversities. All the major religions of the world, viz.: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhims, Buddhism and Jainism are found in India. The institution of religion has its own impact on Indian society which can be summarised as follows:
People belonging to a particular religion closely identify themselves with the religious group.
Religion helps in the development of ethical values, eg.: Care for the parents & children, helping the poor & disabled , honesty are preached by religion.
Religion acts as an effective tool of social control by imbibing certain ethical values.
Over a period of time religious customs and traditions gain the force of law e.g.: According to morality, maintenance of wife and children is the bounden duty of the husband. For awarding maintenance a rule is made in Hindu Marriage Act.
While groupism, frequent conflicts,dogmatism,block of social change are some negative impacts of religion.
Now coming to the point of politics in India,
India is a democratic country where the government is formed by the people,for the people and of the people. Democracy is beauty of Indian politics!
The people of India choose which representative and which political party should run the government. This gives them the power.
Better representation of a larger range of public opinion.
While these are only few positives from the Indian political system,it has evolved over the time and modified the definition of democracy according to it's convenience. Let's look at its negative impacts.
Pressure to win electoral fights does not allow sensible long term policies to be formulated.
The narrow focus and votebank of most parties, even in the central government , sidelines national issues such as economic welfare and national security.
Internal security is also threatened as incidences of political parties instigating and leading violence between two opposing groups of people is a frequent occurrence.