Dominant Religious Group Research Articles

Saffron Ethnocracy: conceptualising ethnocracy in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT Myanmar’s political system during the 2010–2021 period shares much in common with the political systems of neighbouring India and nearby Sri Lanka, and so this article identifies all three as ethnocratic, arguing these polities represent a variation of ethnocracy which leans authoritarian and is specifically Islamophobic. This article builds on discourse about the nature of ethnocracy to introduce the label ‘Saffron Ethnocracy’, which is used to identify the specific Islamophobic variation of ethnocracy observable in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The saffron label recognises the common use of saffron clothing as identity markers by Hindus and Buddhists, the dominant religious groups in each country. While all three South Asian countries were certainly procedural democracies during the period studied, majoritarianism strongly impacted their political systems, affecting citizenship laws and practices, contributing to assertions about civilisational uniqueness of dominant groups, empowering religio-political institutions of the dominant groups, dramatically curtailing freedom of expression and severely undermining the standing of minorities, particularly Muslim populations.

Religious Institutions’ Stances towards Autocratization in the Post-Third Wave Period

AbstractWhile scholars have devoted significant attention to religious institutions’ role in democratization, less attention has been given to their role in autocratization. Moreover, religious economy approaches suggest that religious institutions are flexible to offer whatever is of interest to the marketplace, but here the role the institutions played in the third wave of democratization suggests a stable commitment. I test the impact of religious monopoly and the historical pro-democratizing role on 52 dominant religious institutions’ stances towards autocratic practices related to regime survival in the post-third wave period. Logistic regression models reveal that stronger religious monopolies decrease the probability of opposing regime survival, while the historical pro-democratizing role of the dominant religious groups in the third wave increases the probability. Furthermore, when the religious market is highly monopolized, the commitment to a democratic role in the third wave is weak, and it is strengthened when there is intense religious competition.

RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED POLITICS IN DEMOCRATIC INDIA UNDER THE BJP GOVERNMENT

The prevalence of democracy is contingent upon sustainable peace and good governance, wherein individuals are granted freedom to practice their cultural and religious beliefs. In South Asia, the politicisation of religion has been a vexing issue, with dominant religious groups, both protected and non-protected, threatening democratic ideals. This paper argues that India, which is among the world's largest secular democratic states, has witnessed the emergence of fascist and authoritarian policies and manifestations under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, allowing extremist Hindutva groups and BJP to promote Hindu nationalism at the expense of other marginalised groups. The paper also highlights that the BJP government has employed religion to manipulate and mobilise individuals against minorities, jeopardising democratic values and undermining state institutions. It concludes that if the Indian government persists in practising fascistic tenets, it will have grave repercussions for regional stability and the democratic rights of minorities at home. Bibliography Entry Qurban, Zara. 2023. "Religiously Motivated Politics in Democratic India Under the BJP Government." Margalla Papers 27 (1): 176-185.

Syncretism in the Hindu Right as Intentionally Incomplete Proximity

Religious syncretism can function as an instrument of inter-group control and domination. Rather than consistently promoting cross-religious forbearance and knowledge, syncretism enables a proximity that allows forms of violence otherwise inaccessible to religious majoritarian groups. By choreographing performances of syncretism between themselves and a subordinate religious community, organizations like the Indian Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) produce an intentionally incomplete proximity. This proximity draws close minority groups like the RSS' Muslim wing, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, but without allowing final inclusion or incorporation. Muslim proximity to the RSS becomes a spectacle of humiliation and domination rather than a measure of inclusion into the Hindu right. Muslims must perform Hindu nationalist religious rituals, while denigrating mainstream Islamic tradition. Drawing on extensive interview- based fieldwork with the RSS and the Manch, I argue that syncretism can function as domination because it reinforces ethnic hierarchies, but that this domination is not a form of hierarchical encompassment. Rather, subordinate religious groups are kept in a perpetual humiliating limbo as a way to reify the superiority of a dominant religious group.

Diversity Competency and Access to Healthcare in Hospitals in Croatia, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia.

Diversity competency is an approach for improving access to healthcare for members of minority groups. It includes a commitment to institutional policies and practices aimed at the improvement of the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals. The aim of this research is to investigate whether and how such a commitment is included in internal documents of hospitals in Croatia, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia. Using the methods of documentary research and thematic analysis we examined internal documents received from hospitals in these countries. In all four countries, the documents concentrate on general statements prohibiting discrimination with regard to healthcare provision. Specific regulations concerning ethnicity and culture focus on the issue of language barriers. With regard to religious practices, the documents from Croatia, Poland, and Slovenia focus on dominant religious groups. Observance of other religious practices and customs is rarely addressed. Healthcare needs of patients with non-heteronormative sexual orientation, intersexual, and transgender patients are explicitly addressed in only a few internal documents. Diversity competency policies are not comprehensively implemented in hospital internal regulations in hospitals under investigation. There is a need for the development and implementation of comprehensive policies in hospitals aiming at the specific needs of minority groups.

Status of Employment and Occupations of Muslims in India: Evidence from a Household Survey – 2011–2012

Muslims are one of the most socially and economically backward communities compared with other religious groups in India. The present study was undertaken to examine the labor market outcomes for Muslims in India in comparison with other dominant religious groups in the country, especially the Hindus. Based on the employment survey of 2011-12, the paper finds that as compared with Hindus, Muslims are concentrated mainly in self-employment and lesser in regular salaried employment, which often comes with social security. Muslim workers are engaged in low-tech industries such as manufacturing of wearing apparel, textiles, tobacco products, and leather products. In addition, Muslims occupy the lower rungs of occupations such as salespersons, drivers, street vendors, mining and construction laborers, transport laborers, and freight handlers, which explains their poor economic status. Their marginalization is further exacerbated by stiff competition with other dominant religious groups, poor capital investment, and lack of direct access to output markets directly.

Contestations and Transformations: The Shared Religious Space of Jhule Lal in Sindh, Pakistan

Syncretic and shared religious spaces have long been perceived as reflections of tolerance. This does not imply that tolerance is completely liberated from multiple clashing components and the coexistence of interfaith practices do not suggest that hostility is entirely missing. In recent times, a transformation is taking place at the shared space of the Jhule Lal by the dominant religious group. However, there remains an appearance of tolerance at the shared space of the Jhule Lal among believers of both Islam and Hinduism, which blinds the observer of the deep internal contestation and process of transformation between both Sindhi Hindus and Sindhi Muslims who revere the same saint of the Jhule Lal. A syncretic space does not simply absorb different religious groups, and by studying the practices, rituals and interactions of the custodians, visitors and devotees at the shrine, this paper aims to unearth the processes through which shrine is contested in multiple identities, discourse (written, textual, verbal) authority, and belief systems.

Religious Nationalism and Religious Freedom in Asia: Mapping Regional Trends in a Global Phenomenon

AbstractIn recent times, religious nationalism has emerged as a major basis for identity and mobilization. In Asia, religious nationalism specifically challenges existing pluralist approaches to constitutional government, which have generally been seen as necessary to ensure peaceful coexistence. The increasing alignment of religious and national boundaries has the worrying capacity to neutralize the “cross-cutting cleavages” that could otherwise vitiate the centrifugal tendencies of pluralistic societies. In the context of pluralistic Asia, therefore, religious nationalism is fundamentally anchored in a rejection of ethnic, religious, cultural, and even legal plurality. This has serious consequences for the freedoms of religious groups, particularly minority groups and minorities within dominant religious groups. This article introduces the Special Issue studying not only the phenomenon of religious nationalism in Asia, but also its impact on the rights of religious groups and their religious freedoms, broadly conceived.

Why some South Asian Muslims celebrate Christmas: Introducing ‘acculturation trade-offs’

Research studying religious observance and marketplace interaction in different cultural settings focuses either on the dominant religious group's consumption rituals or religious minorities' own religious consumption rituals. However, research has not explored how religious minority groups celebrate dominant religious holidays. This study explores how Muslims living in Britain apply religiosity to mediate engaging with Christmas celebrations. We argue these interactions must be understood from a religious, cultural and market generated perspective. Our findings indicate that participants encounter tensions surrounding their engagement with Celebrations mediated through their Islamic religious principles. By recognizing this behavior, we introduce the term ‘acculturation trade-offs’ describing how individuals reject, compromise, or submerse themselves in an others' behavior. This behavior involves a personal evaluation of the costs and benefits of engagement.

The gender agenda in Indo-Fijian wedding songs

ABSTRACTThere are stereotyped depictions of women in songs called Vivah ke Geet (songs of weddings) performed by female folksingers in the Indo-Fijian community of the Sanatani sect, which is one of the dominant religious groups among Indo-Fijians and the only demographically prominent sect that actually practises wedding song performances. These songs are performed for pre-wedding functions and wedding ceremonies, a ceremony composed of several fragmented rituals. A close reading of these songs exposes patriarchal ideologies, female and male stereotypes and socially sanctioned codes of behaviour and appearance to be imposed on individuals through this medium. Fundamentally, the discussion weaves together three voices to provide insight into the gendered nature of Indo-Fijian society. The first voice is that of Judith Butler and her theoretical construct of performativity. The second voice is that of the wedding singers and their opinions and the third voice(s) is that of the relations of brides and grooms who speak through the singers’ lyrics.

Religion, Paranormal Beliefs, and Distrust in Science: Comparing East versus West

Studies in Western contexts suggest that religiosity is in conflict with rationality since it relates to paranormal beliefs and distrust in science. East Asian cultures, known to be holistic and tolerant of contradictions, may, however, not experience this conflict. Using the International Social Survey Program, we analyzed data from Buddhists, Protestants, and Catholics in South Korea ( Ns = 358; 391; 135), as well as Catholics and Protestants in Austria and Denmark ( Ns = 715; 1,545). Results confirmed a positive association between religiosity and paranormal beliefs among dominant religious group but not among Korean Christians. Moreover, whereas religiosity in the West correlated positively with distrust in science, the opposite held for religious Korean groups. Religiosity mediated the relationship between paranormal beliefs and distrust in science among all dominant religious groups but in opposite directions in East and West. These findings bring a new cross-cultural perspective on the religion-science relationship.

Level of depression among adolescents of religious minorities and their dominant counterparts in Pakistan

Objective: This study investigated the level of depression among religious minority adolescents (Christians and Hindus) in comparison with their dominant counterparts (Muslims) in Pakistan. For this purpose, based on literature available, we hypothesised that adolescents of religious minorities would have a higher level of depression than their dominant counterparts. Design: Between-group design was used as it was considered most appropriate for this study where a religious minority adolescent group was compared with its dominant counterpart. Method: A total of 320 adolescents participated in this study of whom 160 belonged to the minority religious groups (i.e. 76 Christians and 84 Hindus) and 160 to the dominant religious group, i.e. Muslims. To assess the level of depression in the participants, Reynolds Adolescents Depression Scale (2nd ed., Reynolds 2002) was used. Results: One-Way Analysis of Variance was used to analyse the data in statistical terms to reveal any significant difference or differences between these two groups. Conclusions: The findings of the study suggest that religious minority adolescents (Christians and Hindus) in Pakistan are inclined to have higher levels of depression than their dominant counterparts (Muslim adolescents).

Self-Esteem: A Comparative Study of Adolescents from Mainstream and Minority Religious Groups in Pakistan

The present study aimed to investigate the level of self-esteem among religious minority adolescents (Christians and Hindus) by making a comparison with their dominant counterparts (Muslims) in Pakistan. It was hypothesized that adolescents of religious minorities would have lower level of self-esteem than their dominant counterparts. In the present study 320 adolescents participated, in which 160 adolescents belonged to minority religious groups (i.e. 76 Christians and 84 Hindus) and 160 adolescents belonged to dominant religious group i.e. Muslims. To assess self-esteem of the participants, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg in Society and the adolescent self image, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1965) was used. One Way Analysis of Variance reveals that religious minority adolescents (Christians and Hindus) inclined to have lower self-esteem as compared to their dominant counterpart (Muslim adolescents).

Individual- and Contextual-Level Determinants of Social Inequities in Under-Five Mortality in Nigeria: Differentials by Religious Affiliation of the Mother

In sub-Saharan Africa, social factors such as religion have been linked with significant child morbidity and mortality. In religiously multi-denominational societies, one dominant religious group tends to subject the other groups to some form of economic, social or political discrimination, resulting in inequities in child survival. This study assessed the influence of individual- and community-level indicators underlying the association between religion and under-five mortality using multilevel logistic regression modelling. There is a significant association between religion and under-five mortality, which is considerably attenuated by sequentially adjusting for other risk factors. The effect of religion on under-five mortality is influenced by contextual-level characteristics of the community. Traditional religion is associated with under-five mortality, which is attributed to individual- and community-level indicators. Policy measures aimed at tackling child health inequities due to social factors such as religion need to consider the significance of the context in which mothers in different communities live, when healthcare interventions are being planned.

Morality and the Mail in Nineteenth-Century America

Morality and the Mail in Nineteenth-Century America explores the evolution of postal innovations that sparked a communication revolution in nineteenth-century America. Wayne E. Fuller examines how evangelical Protestants, the nation's dominant religious group, struggled against those transformations in American society that they believed threatened to paganize the Christian nation they were determined to save. Drawing on House and Senate documents, postmasters general reports, and the Congressional Record, as well as sermons, speeches, and articles from numerous religious and secular periodicals, Fuller illuminates the problems the changed postal system posed for evangelicals, from Sunday mail delivery and Sunday newspapers to an avalanche of unseemly material brought into American homes via improved mail service and reduced postage prices. Along the way, Fuller offers new perspectives on the church and state controversy in the United States as well as on publishing, politics, birth control, the lottery, censorship, Congress's postal power, and the waning of evangelical Protestant influence.

The Search for Seventeenth Century Authority during the Hicksite Reformation

The Search for Seventeenth Century Authority during the Hicksite Reformation H. Larry Ingle In matters of religious faith and conviction, the question of authority is always central—how is the faith defined? Historically within the western Christian tradition, there have been three approaches to solving this central question. The first evolved within the Roman Catholic Church and is characterized by granting final authority to the church, represented by the central figure within the organization, the Bishop of Rome, the pope. As all know, Roman Catholics aver that the pope is infallible and cannot err when speaking formally on matters of faith and morals. Secondly, the Protestant tradition begins and ends with the scriptures, the Bible, even though Martin Luther, who set the Protestant movement going, insisted that "the just shall live by faith alone (Romans 1:17)." Of course, this solution only begs the question because someone must have the authority to affirm which interpretation, among the many that are possible, is the correct one. Quakers draw from an approach more mystical and individualistic, but like other Protestants they have still not escaped the problem of who determines among the myriad and idiosyncratic possible interpretations which one is correct. Moreover, as in the other traditions, there are different emphases at different times, meaning that over time there is a lack of consistency. (Here I might add that this evolution in the Quaker message demands that those seeking to understand it can hardly avoid a historical approach, lest they distort their findings.1 What George Fox thought in, say, 1654, was likely a bit different from his views thirty years later; certainly external events influenced his thought at any given time.) Such changes also make the tradition a rich one, supplying in day-to-day solutions to the fundamental problem ofauthority precedents that adherents in the future may use for their purposes, both political and personal. In this sense, the conflict between the so-called "Hicksites" and the so-called "Orthodox" after 1819 was a disagreement over which side interpreted their common heritage correctly. What they actually did, as we shall see, was to draw on different emphases in the historical record they possessed, so that each side legitimately claimed to be correct. Thus we must first turn to examine the broad outlines ofthe seventeenthcentury Quaker convictions that later Friends mined for their partisan purposes. (I add, again parenthetically, that most people who explore the past—present company excepted of course!—go to it with a preconceived approach that they want to vindicate and support. Few are unbiased, objective observers; this was certainly true ofthe Hicksites and the Orthodox .) Seventeenth-century Quaker thought and practice fall easily into two The Search for Seventeenth Century Authority69 periods for our purposes: the first, and in my opinion the more innovative and creative ofthe two, included the years up to the Stuart Restoration of 1 660; the second occurred after 1 660 and reached its high point in 1 666 with the Testimony of the Brethren, which in a typically conservative fashion sought a way to consolidate earlier gains while preserving the institutions of the faith. Those who worked during the first period were creating a movement that some ofthem liked to refer to a bit grandly as the "Lamb's War."2 Those who offered leadership during the second period, including George Fox, sought to distance themselves from what they now regarded as the excesses ofthe earlier period and created an organizational structure that would hem in those who might, as Fox phrased it, "run out" and follow individual leadings. The conflict with James Nayler, which was Fox's first major internal challenge in the mid- 1650s, offered the First Friend more than a hint of what was to come, and he began to institute a system of church government that would subordinate any potential dissidents to the larger body of Friends. But that effort would turn out to be a will-o'-the wisp in comparison to the heady hopes ofFox and his fellow believers that they had a real chance of becoming England's dominant religious group during the Cromwell Interregnum. After Nayler's humiliation, the lack ofan immediate continuing need...

When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War

When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War. By John Patrick Daly. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. Pp. 1, 207. Cloth, $45.00.)In twenty-first-century America, southern-style evangelicalism radiates cultural and political power nationwide. Not surprisingly, its nineteenth-century forebears have recently enjoyed a great deal of attention from historians. Investigations of evangelical doctrines and practices have been interpolated with analyses of evangelicals' attitudes towards slavery, the spread of market forces, and the sectional crisis. Randy Sparks, Richard Carwardine, Mitchell Snay, Christine Leigh Heyrman, and Ellen Eslinger all have contributed insightful monographs, and with John R. McKivigan, Snay has also edited an anthology on religion and slavery.John Patrick Daly's excellent new book both complements and challenges the work by these scholars. One prominent feature of today's southern evangelicalism is its theology; i.e., the conviction that God bestows favor on converted Christians in this life. Daly argues forcefully that this cultural stance has roots in antebellum evangelicals' defenses of slavery. He concludes that while current social and economic inequities are not the equivalent of slavery . . . the moral rhetoric now employed to justify them was developed in the antebellum slavery debate (157).Drawing chiefly on sermons from across the antebellum South, Daly distills two key ideas driving southern morality: belief in God's providence at work in the world, and a conviction that individuals were personally and morally accountable to God. The conversion experience turned people into true Christians; afterwards, they could expect to win both salvation and worldly success as a result of providential forces. And if this success included gaining wealth through slaveholding, then slavery itself, at least as administered by converted masters, must be part of God's plan.According to Daly, ministers acknowledged that slavery in the abstract was an evil, but came to consider such abstractions irrelevant. In the words of William Brownlow, bad men abuse negroes, good men do not and in all cases the abuse arises from the character and disposition of the master (45). To such thinkers, condemnations of slavery as immoral meant little; however, organized abolitionism represented nothing less than a religious heresy. Providence would end slavery in good time, and human attempts to abolish it represented sinful rebellion against God's will. For Daly, abolitionists were a comparatively minor irritant to a South ever more united around a proslavery morality; free soilers posed a more potent threat with their godless desire to thwart the providential awarding of new lands in the West to Christian slaveholders.Daly's narrative begins in 1831, by which time evangelicals had accommodated themselves to southern hierarchies of age, gender, and race, per Heyrman's exposition in Southern Cross (1998), and had become the dominant religious group in the region. Most ministers were by then living the practice of an as-yet largely unarticulated proslavery. Daly sees Thomas Roderick Dew's 1832 Review of the Debates over colonization in Virginia's legislature in the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion as a key work that popularized the fusion of economic and evangelical language in defending slavery. …

Ethnic and religious structure of Tutin municipality

Tutin municipality is settled in southwest Serbia. It is one of Serbian municipality with one dominancy one ethnic group over another - Muslim group in this case. Muslims were dominated over Serbian in Tutin even before The Second World War, but these differences became more distinctly by the end of XX century. The reasons for such situation are numerous: population increase which is bigger among Muslim than among Serbian population, high migration saldo (for the period 1961-1981), emigration processes from villages to only town centre in municipality - Tutin. Ethnic structure on the settlement level is, more or less, the same as on the level of municipality. There are only five out of 93 settlement in the municipality with dominant Serbian population. The other 88 settlement are with absolute dominancy of Muslims. Religious structure follows the course of ethnic structure in Tutin municipality. Muslims are absolutely dominant religious group with 95% of Tutin population, and only 4,31% of population are orthodox Christians. If all these processes continue in the future, there will be absolute dominancy of only one ethnic group by the end of the next decade. On the other side, the area of Raska region is one of the most important geostrategic area in Serbia, and for that reason it would be good to pay more attention to building spirit of tolerance between different ethnic and religious groups.

Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the heart of Dixie

Alabama Baptists provides the definitive history of the dominant religious group within the state of Alabama from the first decade of the 19th century to the present.

Space and Society in Northern Ireland: The Geography of Journey to Work

The ‘causal’ role of geographical location can be overplayed in spatial analysis. In Northern Ireland the distribution of the dominant religious groups may be at least as important. Two models to explain social—economic patterns in this region are suggested, one based on religious groups and one upon location, and attempts are made to examine their separate influence in the geography of journey-to-work flows. The results suggest that location is the more important factor behind patterns at the inter-local-authority scale of analysis chosen.