Question

Write an essay on impact of religion on indian politics

Answer 1

The Impact of Religion in Indian Politics

India is the largest democratic country in the world, in the last  

fifty years it has travelled and been influenced by multiple social  

and economic changes. Its independence from Britain in 1947, the  

partition creating Pakistan and the Pakistan/ Indian debate over  

Kashmir have been fundamental political movements within these years.  

As Y.B.Damle states, “Politics is concerned with goal-attainment and  

politics is the art of possibility”, the political process cannot  

function without structural features. As a country with multiple  

religions, a secular state, the political process has been moulded  

around not only ethnicity and caste but religion has proved to be a  

major factor. India has long been known as a very spiritual, religious  

area of the world.

Religion is a way of life, an integral part of Indian tradition,  

permeating every aspect of life, from chores to food to education and  

politics

A census in 1991 showed Hindu’s made up 82% of the Indian population,  

smaller percentages are taken by minority groups such as Buddhists,  

Jainists, Christians and Sikhs, while the largest minority group,  

calculating for approximately 101.5 million members of the population,  

are Muslims.

In this last century we have seen the role of religion in Indian  

politics enhanced, currently governed by the BJP, Bharatiya Janata  

Party, Hindu nationalists. This blatant religious influence effects  

the economic and political growth of all south Asian countries,  

threatening the cohesion with neighbouring and foreign countries,  

threatening the large majority of Indian-Muslims, disharmonising other  

Islamic countries.

When India won its independence from Britain in 1947 Islamic Pakistan  

and secular India were torn apart, unleashing intent religious  

hatred. A partition based on religion as the congress would not allow  

Muslims to sit before 1947. Now, governed by Hindu nationalists  

religious nationalism affects the secular state, a state that cannot  

foreseeably be secular when it encompasses such a majority of  

Hindus.