Patricia Mukhim
In their more somber moods, people tend to take the moral high ground. They proclaim loudly that religion and politics cannot mix and that if the two did converge then the result is dangerously toxic. Many also feel that in a secular country, politicians and political parties should not use religion to win votes. But are we really sure that we have not used religion to win votes in Meghalaya in the past several decades? What about those whispering campaigns amongst followers of different Christian denominations asking their co-religionists to vote so and so because he/she is from the same denomination? Haven’t there been occasions galore when candidates have visited convents and seminaries looking for en-bloc votes from those places?
One can understand the antipathy of Christians towards the BJP- RSS’s fervour to ban cow slaughter, its Ghar Wapasi programmes and its attacks on churches and convents. For us in Meghalaya the ban on cow slaughter is a “no no.” Many people today shun red meat for good reasons but to impose dietary restrictions on us is unacceptable. The state BJP stalwarts have to be able to argue out this point with the national leaders. As far as religion is concerned, it’s a free choice and should always be so. There is no need for the RSS to meddle with our beliefs. And Ghar Wapasi in Meghalaya would mean a return to the indigenous faith which by no stretch of imagination can be called ‘Hinduism,’ because there is no figurehead called God as such amongst the practitioners of the indigenous religion. The attacks on churches has got to stop and Christians need to make common cause which they have not yet done.
This politics and religion conundrum made me read up a few books to see if the two most powerful forces, if mixed are indeed inflammable. Jonathan Haidt’s book, “The Righteous Mind – Why Good People are divided by Politics and Religion,” is a good primer for those who clamour that religion and politics don’t mix. In India we are schooled to believe that religion and politics cannot mix because we are not a theocratic nation. Hence the “secular” addendum to the Constitution in 1976! But, having added the word, ‘secular’ to the text, neither India’s Constitution nor its laws define the relationship between religion and the state. I am not sure if the ambiguity and ambivalence is intentional, considering we are a country with so many religions striving for oxygen. And now we have a Hindu priest and former MP, holding the post of chief minister in Uttar Pradesh. So where is the dividing line between religion and politics? What has been missing so far is the active participation of Muslim Imams, Christian priests, Sikh Gurus, etc., in electoral politics. But now that Yogi Adityanath has shown the way, others may gleefully follow.
Moral psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, says god and religion are group level adaptations for producing cohesiveness and trust. His studies indicate that humans have an extraordinary ability to care about things beyond themselves, to circle around those things with other people and in the process to bind themselves into teams that can pursue larger projects. That, Haidt says is what religion is all about and with a few adjustments, it’s what politics is all about too. But he wonders at the inability of religion to prevent the sharp polarization of American politics and asks, “Can’t we disagree more constructively?”
The point to question then is why politics and religion are immiscible if both are aimed at improving and uplifting the lives of human beings; one spiritually, the other for temporal purposes. Social psychologists, Putnam and Campbell found in their studies a correlation between religiousness and charity. Also, that while religious people give a lot to religious charities they also give as much or more to secular charities such as the American Cancer Society. And also while they spend a lot of time in service to their churches and synagogues, they also spend more time than secular folks serving in neighbourhood and civic associations of all sorts. Putnam and Campbell therefore conclude that religiously observant Americans are better neighbours and better citizens than secular Americans; are more generous with their time and money, especially in helping the needy, and, are more active in community life. The duo found from their studies that it’s the friendship and group activities carried out within a moral matrix that emphasizes selflessness which brought out the best in people and that if a similar community dictated the manner in which politicians conduct themselves then politics itself would be cleansed.
The studies however use largely Jewish and Christian subjects only as they make up the bigger chunk of the American population. One wonders what the outcomes would be if Muslim and Hindu subjects too were evaluated and if they would demonstrate similar religious cohesion, philanthropy and bring in those virtues to politics. Also it would be interesting to know if a Christian politician relying largely on votes from his co-religionists would be committed to serve the interests of all the constituents or if he/she would give better service to those of his faith. This in essence is the problem of mixing religion and politics in a country with the religious diversity of India.
That most politicians in Meghalaya are also Christians should have purified politics but that has not happened. Why so? Isn’t it because the values of Christianity are left outside the Government Secretariat or the Assembly? And the fact that churches not only tolerate but encourage the blatantly corrupt politicians, bureaucrats et al and give them pride of place inside the churches is a clever way of separating religion from politics. So the church does not judge what the politicians does outside the church as long as he/she continues to attend church and pay towards the upkeep of that church, right? And certainly the church has not confronted corruption among its elite members!
And just to remind ourselves about how religion and politics are two sides of the same coin, in Meghalaya, Rev PBM Basaiawmoit contested the MP elections last time. What is that supposed to mean? Isn’t he a religious man seeking a political position? Is Rev Basaiawmoit still preaching today and involved in church work? So if there are no objections about pastors/preachers contesting elections why should we murmur when the BJP uses Hinduism as a political plank? If Christians are to be salt and light they should make a difference to politics but obviously that has not happened. Why? Is it not because Christianity really has no influence on a person’s thinking outside the Church? So politicians are Christians on Sundays but the rest of the week they give themselves the license to indulge in all manner of corrupt practices. This is the same with the bureaucrats too! In fact some of the most corrupt ones are also most religious!
At the best of times we are a very hypocritical society. Of course, we use and will continue to use religion to get someone from our respective churches elected. And in this surreptitious campaign for “one of our own,” the church leaders are most active. So let’s stop preaching that religion and politics don’t mix. As far as I understand the BJP-RSS have studied us and they have identified the chinks in our armour. They know exactly what to do to win Meghalaya. There are other factors as well which are at play here. The Congress is a Party that is in the ICU. The BJP is in power in Delhi. A Congress Government in Meghalaya will find it difficult to negotiate the political speed-breakers. Let’s just wait and watch to see how religion is kept out of electoral politics.