South Asia, With an Emphasis

¶ … South Asia, with an emphasis on India. There are three references used for this paper.

In South Asian countries, especially India, the major religions are Buddhism and Hinduism, and until Pakistan became a separate state, was home to one of the world's largest Muslim populations. It is important to understand the impact of religion on both the past and present South Asia communities, while concentrating on the cultural and political lives of the people who live there.

Impact of Religion

Many people in South Asia are finding that to "preserve one's traditional identity and heritage, they must rediscover religious practices and beliefs. This does not mean that Islam is incompatible with modernity. But the current trends in the way in which Islam is applied indicate resurgence of unwavering orthodoxy, conservatism and in some cases fundamentalism (Alvi-Aziz)."

Religion plays an important role in the lives of South Asians today. From the "broad public perspective, religion provides security in today's confusing and troubling times (Alvi-Aziz)." Globalization has had a negative impact on a number of Islamic societies by producing an identity crisis among its members.

The most influential impact on the "Indian Hindu social system was the concept of caste. It directly linked religious belief and the segregation of society into status groups (http://wikipedia.lotsofinformation.com/wiki/index.php/The_Religion_of_India:_The_Sociology_of_Hinduism_and_Budhism)."

The past traditions which have impacted many followers are viewed by some as being obsolete or misrepresented. One such tradition requires that Muslim women wishing to pray in mosques must do so in "secluded rooms or behind men (Iqbal)." Some of these women are starting to challenge the practice arguing "if men cannot stop looking at women inside of mosque, it is their problem. Women must reclaim what Islam gives them (Iqbal)." One woman whose family immigrated from India to the United States "studied the Qu'ran and other Muslim religious books and came to the conclusion that tradition, and not Islam, has forced women to pray separately inside mosques. She feels that if men and women can pray together in the holiest of Muslim mosques in Mecca, why can't they do the same in other places (Iqbal)?"

Cultural and Political Lives

The Muslim women of the twentieth century "had two clear choices: adopt modern Westernized lifestyle or go back to more restrictive traditional Islamic lifestyle. The social impact of the Islamic revival, however, produced a third alternative that is both modern and firmly rooted in Islamic faith, identity, and values. Muslim women, both modernists and Islamists, have argued on Islamic grounds for an expanded role in the society (Iqbal)."

In a political sense, "most of the regimes in the Islamic world are authoritarian, undemocratic and lack legitimacy. These governments must divert public attention from the human development gap to other more unworldly matters. This is especially the case in the Arab/Muslim Middle East (Alvi-Aziz)."

When referring to the religious aspects of its citizens, the "establishment clearly prefers to keep the masses obedient and faithful. This allows the male-dominated religious institutions to maintain the status quo and their authority (Alvi-Aziz)."