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Religion, Ethics and Development - Method and Metamorphosis
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Postmodern Openings
ISSN: 2068 – 0236 (print), ISSN: 2069 – 9387 (electronic)
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Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and Metamorphosis
V., Basil, HANS
Postmodern Openings, 2011, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://postmodernopenings.com
Published by:
Lumen Publishing House
On behalf of:
Lumen Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences
Religion, Ethics and Development – Method and
Metamorphosis
V. Basil HANS 1
Abstract
Much has been written about the socio-cultural functions of religion. It is
equally important to discuss the role and impact of religion and ethics on development
and promoting reform in civil society. In today's South Asian context it is necessary to
analyse religion both as a tradition and a representation of modernity. Otherwise it is
difficult to clearly understand not only the relationship of domination-subordination,
together with processes of exclusions and violence prevalent in the sub-continent but
also the emerging perspectives, lineages and languages of sociology in general and
religion in particular. An attempt is made in this paper to examine the relationship
and to evaluate the processes in the evolving discourse of sociology. It also analyses the
'moral' as embedded in religion and as an autonomous category emerging with
secularisation. The subtleties of rights and righteousness in the method and
metamorphosis of development are also dealt with in this paper.
Keywords:
Development, ethics, religion, secular, sociology
1V. Basil HANS - MA., M.Phil, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, St Aloysius
Evening College, Mangalore Karnataka, India, Email Address: [email protected]
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Postmodern Openings
Introduction
In Sociology the field of Religious Studies engages perennial
questions about religion and human society. It investigates religions and
how they shape and are shaped by human cultures. Religious study when
undertaken with an interdisciplinary approach exposes students not only
to different sources, problems, and methodologies in the study of
religion but also to the role and impact of religion and ethics on
development and promoting reform in civil society. Today what attracts
students and researchers to this field is the interdisciplinary approach to
the study of religion, including those that are historical, philosophical,
theological, sociological, economic, political, environmental and even
literary-critical. The interests of such students/researchers may be
descriptive, explanatory or normative. At the farther end of such an
exercise is the possibility of harmonising intellectual (may be sometimes
surreal) goals that are frequently conceived as quite different, or even
intrinsically opposed. This is what for instance comparative religious
ethics in a complicated scholarly endeavour is trying to do (Stalnaker,
2005). In today’s South Asian context conversations about religion need
to go beyond crusades and conversions to cover civil society’s role and
responsibilities in dismantling erroneous premises that put amity and
prosperity in danger, despite retaining words and worships of religion. It
is imperative that in the current scenario of turmoil the text and context
of religions be re-read and interpreted to strengthen the edifices of
democracy and development, much so in a multi-religious society with a
blend of cultures like that of India. It is therefore, necessary to analyse
religion both in traditional and modern perspectives if we are to arrive at
the relationships of factors that determine or deter its functions. An
attempt therefore, is made here to examine the relationship between
religion, ethics and development along with the subtleties of rights and
righteousness in the method and metamorphosis of development.
Religion and ethics role and relationship
Organised religions are man-made, primarily for the purpose of
regulating his social activities. While religion followed by a person in
principle is supposed to be a faith – for enhancing her moral and
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Religion, Ethics and Development – Method and Metamorphosis
V. Basil HANS
spiritual values – it is also expected that it make life wholesome and
productive by fostering new knowledge for social transformation and
economic development (Gopalan, 1984). Religion thus, is more than
faith-following. It is simply impossible to integrate mankind productively
if religion is not practised perfectly. Religion as some say gives an
experience of elevation, spiritually and personally. But to sustain the
experience with a firm footing on the ground, to shun superstitions,
violence, fanaticism, and disrespect for the ‘other’, needs a belief of the
highest order. In modern times even technology is used to practice
intolerance and crude behaviour in the name of religion and culture.
While there is virtual integration of communities across mores and
shores, and when a borderless state is a possibility, the lack of communal
harmony which is derailing “socially acceptable development” is a
tragedy. Even some of the religious leaders and institutions have been
mute witnesses (supporters?) of these retrogressive steps of the ‘modern’
man. Religious aspirations of mankind have been rudely shaken by
events of fundamentalism, terrorism and communalism and
fundamentalism.
Never has the question of social integration raised such a wide
range of emotions as in the present times with incidents of communal
clashes recurring as frequently as famines and famines or power cuts in
India. (Ballal, 2000; Hans, 2007). As Dr. S. Radhakrishnan the
philosopher – statesman of India wrote,
“We have grown in knowledge and intelligence, but not in
wisdom and virtue. For lack of the latter, things are interlocked in
perpetual strife. Religion has been, hitherto used for fostering wisdom
and virtue. But drift from religious belief has gone much too far, and the
margin of safety has become dangerously small. The social pathos of this
age has been exploited by countless individuals in different parts of the
world, who pose as leaders, and proclaim their foolishness as wisdom.
We are sowing grain and weeds at random”. 2
In the light of the drift from religious faith in the modern age (or
the dynamics of our times) one can be equipped with perceptive mind
not just by knowledge accumulation and critical thinking but also by
value-orientation. This calls for a careful examination of the
2 See S. Radhakrishna, Recovery of Faith, 1967.
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Postmodern Openings
interrelationship of ‘religion’ and ‘ethics’, which has much to do with the
building of character for the making of good citizens with rational
thinking – the economic man.
Religion is difficult to define. There are historical religions with
numerous sects and beliefs. What is common is that the beliefs are
results of free thinking (Santinatha, 1987). ‘The word ‘religion’ is from
the Latin word religio or religare, meaning “to bind again”, Therefore,
religion may be defined as that which binds human beings to one
another and integrates them all to, even more inclusive, the ultimate
reality. While influencing powerfully, our character, quality of life, living
style and our world-view, religion constitutes the conceptual, emotional
and practical characteristics. The experience of mankind is that religion
involves his Jnana (intellect), Bhakti (feeling) and Karma (will).
Essentially therefore, there are two relationships: a binding between man
and the transcendent reality (vertical relationship) and a link of man with
his neighbour and nature (horizontal relationship) (Daniel, 1984). But the
two are not separate relationships, just as ‘matter’ and ‘spirit’ are by no
means discreet entities but different facets of one whole, or in other
words, different levels of vibrations in the endless energetic fluctuations
of Being. ‘Being’ is a whole which is in constant change and flux (Esler,
2007) and thus, the relationships become functional. Religion is, thus, a
structured expression of human quest to establish and maintain
relationships with the Divine along with the human and the Cosmic
without losing the perceived distinctive identity of any but at the same
time enabling continued transformation of all in an integral manner
(Chackalackal, 2007). The foundational and functional experiences when
accepted in a uniform manner become the kernel of religion: faith
expression, in words and deeds. This is where ethics enters.
The word ‘Ethics’ is derived from the Greek word ‘ethos’ and a
related word ‘morality’ from the Latin words ‘mos’ or ‘moris’. Whereas
morals refer to the behaviour of individuals and societies according to
the traditional and prevalent customs, ethics is a praxiological reflection
on these customs: “why” I out to do, what I ought to do. It builds social
ethics, which coupled with religion, invites a person who is basically a
social being, to reflect upon the responsible activity of man towards
God, the ground of our being, and his neighbour and nature. Reflection
without action is incomplete. Praxis is, in fact, the mode of contextual
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Religion, Ethics and Development – Method and Metamorphosis
V. Basil HANS
theology. It is critical reflection on the situation of bondage and action
directed towards changing it. The contextual liberative model of ethics is
praxis. It provides for a vision of well-being (Shalom or Kingdom of
God, as in the Bible) and people are called to be participants in the
process of transformation of the world towards that goal (Daniel, 1984;
Abraham, 1996). Godliness and neighbourliness come together in the
interpretation of the sacred and the secular.
The moral, as autonomous category, emerges only with the
secularisation, first of learning, then of society more generally Majority of
sociologists and historians hold the view that the causes of secularisation
are social, not intellectual (Mounce, 1991). Perhaps, one way of
protecting a religion from the onslaught of the ‘enlightened’ was to
brand them as secular (secular= worldly) as against the spiritual. Actually
one cannot be realised without the other; that is there cannot be spiritual
without the secular, and vice versa, as they assume more of a
complementary nature than that of contradictions. While the former
asserts the need of responses from the human founded on divine
authority, faith and the values derived therefrom, the latter insists on
reinstating the role of reason and human values (Chackalackal, 2007).
In the modern use of the term secular, the sphere of secular is
considered to be distinct from the religious. But the moral is so
connected with the religious as to derive from it something of its point
or meaning. As Plato and Aristotle found the interlocking of elements
into a whole we may also state that moral value is real because it reflects
objective order which itself reflects its transcendent source
(Chackalackal, 2007; Mounce, 1991). The sociological discourses should
strongly grasp these nuances and the complexities of the religious
dimensions as it interfaces with modernity, to be concerned with the way
religiosity, ethnicity and communalism are defining everyday practices
and lives of people of South Asia and dividing them. This is not because
religion was historically and everywhere the source of morality, law,
science etc, but it has become a process of knowledge and meaning
construction (Patel, 2007). 3
Social life, thus, has been the common matrix in which both
ethical and religious tendencies were initiated. Therefore, principally
3See T.N. Madan, Images of the World: Essays on Religion, Secularism and Culture, Oxford,
Delhi, 2006
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Postmodern Openings
religion should take the initiative to assert that the secular is not all an
extrinsic aspect, but an intrinsic dimension to religion which would make
it more integral and holistic and enables it to be a catalyst in human
development and social ethos (Daniel, 1984; Chackalackal, 2007). This
last dimension is today the lost dimension that has to be redeemed
because from sociology it permeates into the domain of economics the
art of household management, too. The questions, of caste, class,
culture, market in the era of globalisation must be addressed and
modernity must handle them with care, and religion can help. For
instance, the popular Indian socioeconomic discourse today seems to be
not fully familiar with the emerging phenomenon of ‘social capital’ – an
area of study where culture and economics confluence. Francis
Fukuyama, the author of Trust has captured culture as the “20 per cent
missing element” of economics. He says that as contrasted with
individualism-dominated societies, relation-based societies generate
culturally defined social capital. Some feel, therefore, that traditional
caste, by reorienting itself is handling modernity well and that modernity
is clueless as to how to handle caste. They call for promoting the
economic potential of caste (Gurumurty, 2009). More research is needed
to substantiate this. What cannot be denied is that both social progress
and economic development require supportive values, namely pluralism,
tolerance, free flow of ideas and information, including religious and
ethical. Upholding human rights and dignity, giving knowledge and
creating jobs are therefore as noble tasks as providing food to the hungry
as religious and spiritual leaders have been doing at various places [as
President Pratibha Patil put it, the Sri Siddaganga Math is known for Vidya
Danam and Anna Danam (knowledge removes ignorance and food
banishes hunger)]. 4 5
4 The President in her inaugural speech in the three-day “Siddaganga Shivakumara Sami
Birthday Celebration” at Tumkur on February 02, 2009. Tumkur is a district of
Karnataka, one the states of India.
5 In Sanskrit, vidya danam means charity of education, and anna danam means charity
of food (Note: vidya = education; anna = rice/food).
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Religion, Ethics and Development – Method and Metamorphosis
V. Basil HANS
Dilemmas and Develpment
With the waves of marketisation sweeping the world, defending
the religious tenets and moral values has become a daunting task.
Disguised unemployment and open unemployment (the fall-out of global
meltdown) are challenges to social progress and sustainable economic
development. Terrorism – biological, political – can be viewed as
perversion of religion. The borderless economic fundamentalism is a
new entry into the political economic literature. It is a concentrated
expression of communal politics, acting against economic liberalism,
division of labour and economic welfare. Hatred between sects and
religious groups as also communal violence has led to displacement of
labour, unwarranted exodus of people, unemployment and poverty.
Communal frenzy puts work ethics in disarray. The right and the wrong
approach to one’s work constitute the ethics of work. Indifference to
one’s own work or that of others is unethical. Bandh (closure) and other
disruptions to work are wrong attitudes to work and are counter-
productive to development.
The concept of bread labour is not found in the blood lost by a
labourer in violent acts. The loss of productive resources in such
incidents shows how little one understands the Godman-nature
relationship (Hans, 2007; Swaminathan, 1984). Breeding insecurity is
inhuman. As human beings are the means and end of economic
development, we cannot diverse the roles of religion and ethics even in
the trend of commodification. The gospel needed today is of world
vision and unity, for all religions and ideologies post love as the ultimate
moral law of human perfection and, a community of love with its
harmony is the final goal of human and cosmic relationships. But it is
admitted that some kind of self-alienation makes perfection difficult and
corruption of power and authority inevitable. Therefore, while keeping
love as the essence of humaneness and, therefore, the criterion and goal
of all human endeavour, human society today has to eschew utopianism
and organise itself as power-structures based on a sense of moral law of
structural justice. It can even utilise the coercive legal sanctions of the
state to preserve social peace and economic justice in the society. This
calls for rational inter-faith discourse at least as the basic framework
given the plurality of religious and secular faiths, in various places,
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Postmodern Openings
including schools/colleges and workplaces. This is quite challenging
because we have to work towards allowing faith-communities to keep
their identities while interacting with other religious/ideological groups.
Renewal of distinctive cultural traditions will also be required (Thomas,
1998). If we succeed then it would be heaven on earth. What suits, India
therefore, is democratic secularism, not a common denial of belief in a
transcendent religious ultimate but making a secularist ideology the
established “religion” of the common life. Also this sense of respect to
different faiths or equality of religions will not come in the way of the
freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion as a fundamental
right (Thomas, 1998). Then the practice of ‘religion’ would not be
confined to churches, temples, mosques and other places of worship.
This clear expression of human rights will determine also the strength of
our polity and the future of sociology.
Development Direction
Rebuilding communities of development has to be carried on for
change. Reconstruction is ever-present in the process of development.
Fighting communalism is a contribution to socio-economic development
as it helps overcome the forces undermining unity in society –
resistances to co-operation, and justice. This has to be done on two
planks: intra-community and inter-community relations. Every believer
then becomes a builder of nation through faith and communication, not
fanaticism and confrontation. In a pluralistic society, the model of
development has to be inclusive and sustainable. It is rights-driven
human development. It is a composite approach to tackle both social
and economic problems of the society. In such a society there is also a
formed system of interdependence of individuals as well as of
institutions, wherein the livelihood, rights and justice of each person is
interwoven with that of all. This countervailing tendency enables
moderation and generates means of inclusion. For this the representative
democracy/development would need to become participative
democracy/development in action. This is the much needed shift from
welfare approach to the empowerment approach. Essentially this means
not just a rearrangement of power and rights. It is also a change of values
HANS, V., B., (2011) Religion, Ethics and Development- Method and
Metamorphosis, Postmodern Openings, Year 2, No. 8, December, pp: 23-32
Religion, Ethics and Development – Method and Metamorphosis
V. Basil HANS
and imbibing a culture of equity and practising it continuously (Hans,
2007; Hans, 2008).
Conclusion
Religiosity and loyalty can go together for social transformation
and economic change. Economic development needs social integration
and religious harmony. A re-engineering of theories and renewed focus
of practices to appreciate the intellectual, religious and spiritual values is
essential. Education too has to play a proactive role (Hans, 2007). As we
say, “all are the children of God” so why not treat every person as a child
of God, and help him/her blossom in his/her social space and economic
sphere? Economic interdependency will be fruitful if religious principles
are applied without scope for hatred and violence. Development without
discrimination has to be the watchword. So we all need to practice good
and global neighbourhood policy.
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