Happiness in Bangladesh: The Role of Religion and Connectedness

Joe Devine,Arif Naveed,Timothy Hinks

doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9939-x

Abstract

Research into the relation between religion and happiness offers inconclusive evidence. Religion seems to matter but it is not entirely clear how and why. Moreover much of the research to date is rooted in western experiences. This article analyzes primary data from Bangladesh to examine how religion figures in people’s wellbeing and life chances. It identifies differences in reported happiness between the country’s two largest religious populations: Muslims and Hindus. Our main argument is that the significance of religion is only really understood when considered alongside social, economic and political processes. The data and analysis make an important contribution to the limited knowledge we have of the relation between religion, political connectedness and happiness in non-western societies. It also highlights the need to incorporate more contextualizing analyses into our assessments of the relation between religion and happiness.

Highlights

1.1 Religion and WellbeingAcademic interest in the connection between religion and happiness has grown significantly over recent years, and produced an impressive body of scholarship
In order to test whether greater happiness is the result of identity based on religious affiliation or the result of the relative status that religion generates within a community or nation, we interact being Muslim with the different sites to reveal whether there are differences in happiness depending on where Muslims live, ceteris paribus
Instead given that Achingaon and Baniknagar have the highest proportion of Muslims in any of the six locations in our sample and given we control for absolute and relative wealth, age, subjective health, site and economic activity, our findings suggest that Muslims are significantly happier when residing in a site with many other Muslims

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Religion and WellbeingAcademic interest in the connection between religion and happiness has grown significantly over recent years, and produced an impressive body of scholarship. For example Witter et al (1985) reviewed 28 wellbeing studies and found that the majority reported a positive association between religion and subjective wellbeing. They found that religion accounted for 2–6% of the variation in subjective wellbeing. Bangladesh is a relatively small country which has been transformed over the years by improved physical and informational connections. This has resulted in the expansion of urban centres and allowed for greater connectivity between rural locations and the urban centres which are effectively the hubs of economic, administrative, business Research site.

Methods

Results

Conclusion