Religions and Development Research Programme Religions, Democracy and Governance: Spaces for the Marginalized in Contemporary India Gurpreet Mahajan Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Surinder S. Jodhka Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Working Paper 26- 2009 Religions and Development Research Programme The Religions and Development Research Programme Consortium is an international research partnership that is exploring the relationships between several major world religions, development in low-income countries and poverty reduction. The programme is comprised of a series of comparative research projects that are addressing the following questions: z How do religious values and beliefs drive the actions and interactions of individuals and faith-based organisations? z How do religious values and beliefs and religious organisations influence the relationships between states and societies? z In what ways do faith communities interact with development actors and what are the outcomes with respect to the achievement of development goals? The research aims to provide knowledge and tools to enable dialogue between development partners and contribute to the achievement of development goals. We believe that our role as researchers is not to make judgements about the truth or desirability of particular values or beliefs, nor is it to urge a greater or lesser role for religion in achieving development objectives. Instead, our aim is to produce systematic and reliable knowledge and better understanding of the social world. The research focuses on four countries (India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Tanzania), enabling the research team to study most of the major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and African traditional belief systems. The research projects will compare two or more of the focus countries, regions within the countries, different religious traditions and selected development activities and policies. The consortium consists of six research partner organisations, each of which is working with other researchers in the four focus countries: z University of Birmingham, UK: International Development Department, Department of Theology and Religion, Centre for West African Studies, Centre for the Study of Global Ethics. z University of Bath, UK: Centre for Development Studies. z Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. z Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan. z University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. z Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. In addition to the research partners, links have been forged with non-academic and non-government bodies, including Islamic Relief. http://www.rad.bham.ac.uk Contact: [email protected] Religions and Development Working Paper 26 Religions, Democracy and Governance: Spaces for the Marginalized in Contemporary India Gurpreet Mahajan Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Surinder S. Jodhka Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi ISBN: 0 7044 2760 5 978 0 7044 2760 0 © International Development Department, University of Birmingham This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. 2 Working Paper 26 Religions, Democracy and Governance: Spaces for the Marginalized in Contemporary India Contents Summary 1 Glossary 2 1 Introduction 5 2 , politics and secularism 8 2.1 Introduction 8 2.2 The constitutional framework 8 2.3 Understanding secularism in India 12 3 Religion in the political domain 15 3.1 Identity politics and religious communities in post-independence India 15 3.2 Development and issues of governance 19 4 Regions and religions in Indian politics 24 4.1 Religion and politics in contemporary Punjab: an overview 24 4.2 Religion and politics in Maharashtra: an overview 35 5 Three case studies 44 5.1 Framing the problem 44 5.2 Framework of inquiry 45 6 The Punjab story 46 6.1 Quotas and the Valmiki-Mazhabi identity 47 6.2 Political parties and marginalized communities: state-sponsored change 49 6.3 Dilemmas of group-differentiated policies 52 7 Minority religious communities: Muslims in Maharashtra 55 7.1 Development concerns among Muslims: the OBC Movement in Maharashtra 56 7.2 Organizational networks, agendas and challenges 57 7.3 Identity and development interconnections 66 2 Working Paper 26 8 A marginalized ’Ex-Hindu’ community: Neo-Buddhists in Maharashtra 69 8.1 Dalits in Maharashtra 69 8.2 The Neo-Buddhist movement 70 8.3 Issues of empowerment 80 9 Concluding comments 83 Notes 85 References 93 Appendices 97 1 Religious communities in India: Maharashtra and Punjab 97 2 Post-independence incidence of communal violence in Maharashtra and Punjab 98 3 Religious political parties 100 4 Note on methodology and list of interviews, with name, institutional affiliation, position and date 101 List of tables Table 1: Outcomes of the Punjab Assembly Elections 1951-2007 34 Table 2: Punjab Assembly election 2002: voting by religion 34 Table 3: Punjab Assembly election 1997: votes for Akali (SAD(B)) and BJP by caste and religion 35 Table 4: Maharashtra Assembly Election 1999: caste and community voting patterns 40 Table 5: Maharashtra Assembly Election 2004: caste and community voting patterns 41 Table 6: Maharshatra Loksabha Election 1996: caste and community voting patterns 41 Table 7: Maharashtra Loksabha Election 1998: caste and community voting patterns 42 Table 8: Maharashtra Loksabha Election 1999: caste and community voting patterns 42 Table 9: Maharashtra Loksabha Election 2004: caste and community voting patterns 43 Religions, Democracy and Governance: Spaces for the Marginalized in Contemporary India 1 Summary The constitutional framework that structures the relationships between religion and politics in India reveals how the democratic and liberal concern for equal treatment and liberty for all has been pursued, along with a deep commitment to recognizing and protecting religious and cultural diversity. The paper emphasizes the distinctiveness of the Indian conception of secularism. Experience of the working of Indian democracy over the last six decades reveals that competitive electoral politics compels parties to woo people from different communities. Even when a religious community has an organized religious political party that claims to speak on its behalf, not all sections of the community align themselves with that party. Other axes of identity, such as caste, divide religious communities. The spaces opened by democratic politics and the dynamics it creates need, therefore, to be factored into any discussion of religion and politics. Relationships between religion, politics and governance are further examined through case studies from the states of Punjab and Maharashtra of political mobilizations by marginalized groups within three religious communities: Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Each of these mobilizations involves a cluster of castes and occupational groups in a region. They highlight the different ways in which religion and caste intersect and are implicated in the political process. Religious identity remains the bedrock of social life and individual experience, yet democratic politics brings out new configurations and alignments in which neat boundaries of religious difference are occasionally blurred or overwritten by other identities, which surface time and time again as a basis for articulating demands for access to opportunities and development possibilities. By attending to these group articulations, understanding of both the existing fissures within communities and the complex ways in which religion gains centrality or is sidestepped in the pursuit of better life conditions can be improved. Indian experience also reveals that religion has both moral and social dimensions and that the two do not always coincide. Religious groups are internally heterogeneous in their ideological and spiritual moorings, as well as their social and political outlook. They are continuously being constructed in response to both the external environment and internal pressures. Even more importantly, while religious identity may be important to individuals, other identities also structure individual lives and social interactions. 2 Working Paper 26 Glossary Aatma: The inner voice Ajlafs: Term used for north Indian Muslims with origins in relatively low-status occupations and caste communities Ashrafs: Term used for those north-Indian Muslims with origins in the relatively privileged class of immigrants from the Middle East. Badhais: A caste group, carpenters Baghbaan: Literally ‘a gardener’ Bahujan: Majority population of non-twice-born Hindus Balmiki: New and preferred name of the scavenging caste Bhantheji Mahathero: Buddhist Guru Biradari: A kinship group, a social unit in Punjab Bundh: A mode of protest involving closure (sometimes forcible closure) of all businesses, trade and work places Chuhrah: A scavenging Dalit caste of Punjab DMK: Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam, A Leading Political Party in a southern state of India, Tamil Nadu. Dalits: Formerly referred to as untouchable castes. Dargah: Place of prayer for Sufis Dera: A Punjabi word for the home of a religious leader Devnagari: The script used for writing Hindi Dhamma: Moral order Dhuniyas: A caste group of weavers listed among the Other Backward Classes Ganesh Puja: A festival