Religious Practice and Democracy in India [Hardcover]

This book demonstrates the close relationship between religion and democracy in India.This book demonstrates the close relationship between religion and democracy in India. Religious practice is associated with political representation because the sites and occasions of religious practice constitute one of the few public spheres in which the hierarchies that normally characterize Indian society are temporarily suspended.This book demonstrates the close relationship between religion and democracy in India. Religious practice is associated with political representation because the sites and occasions of religious practice constitute one of the few public spheres in which the hierarchies that normally characterize Indian society are temporarily suspended.This book demonstrates the close relationship between religion and democracy in India. Religious practice creates ties among citizens that can generate positive and democratic political outcomes. In pursuing this line of inquiry the book questions a dominant strand in some contemporary social sciences  that a religious denomination (Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, etc.) is sufficient to explain the relationship between religion and politics or that religion and democracy are antithetical to each other. The book makes a strong case for studying religious practice and placing that practice in the panoply of other social practices and showing that religious practice is positively associated with democracy.1. Religious practices, identities, and political representation; 2. The influence of religious practice; 3. Social domination: caste and political representation; 4. Avenues for the connected: civic associations; 5. Political institutions and the reproduction of inequalities; 6. Party competition, social divisions, and representation; 7. Conclusion. On the basis of several surveys, Pradeep Chhibber argues counterintuitively that the more they practice a religion, the more Indians support democracy. This correlation larglã0