Religious Spaces, Urban Poverty, and Interfaith Relations in India

Abstract

The phenomenal rise of Hindu nationalism, and the implementation of a series of anti-minority decrees, has raised national and international concerns about the nature and culture of interfaith relations in contemporary India. While Hindu religious identities become increasingly politicized and integrated into nationalist propaganda, some ordinary Indians continue to defy absolute separation between communities. This essay suggests that urban poverty often becomes a context for entangled humanity across lines of faith, as the poor informally use their sacred spaces as arenas for retaining and reviving old and new forms of interreligious coexistence, mutual assistance, and reverence.