Resurgence of religion in politics

Islamabad : There is an increasing acknowledgment of religion at the world level and as religion is the very basis of the partition of the subcontinent, Pakistan is largely seen from this religious identity in regional and global politics, said Prof Samina Yasmeen from University of Western Australia, Perth.

Dr Samina was participating as panelist at a webinar on “Resurgence of Religion in International Politics, South Asia” organised by Institute of Regional Studies here. Particularly after the 1980s, she said the government consciously used religion to mobilise country’s Islamic identity that resulted in the creation of “restricted narratives.”

In case of India, the process began in the 1990s wherein Hindutva started dominating thinking and practices that resulted in the creation of the notion of “others,” mostly the Muslims, at a higher level than Pakistan in which mob killing was seemed to be a new normal, where any change of religious identity was treated as ‘Love Jihad’, she added.

Dr Christian Wagner, Senior Fellow at German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that religion as a concept was inherently ambivalent and in South Asia particularly the nation-building processes more often have been oscillating between ethnicity and religion.

Quoting Bangladesh’s example, Dr Wagner argued that religion could not bridge ethnic and linguistic differences between eastern and western wings even though it was the founding pillar of Pakistan. He observed that most of the wars in South Asia were mainly fought on territorial claims adding that even in dispute settlements neither at national nor at the international level, religion was a negotiation leverage. Rulers, whether democratic or authoritarian, however, he said tended to instrumentalise religion to legitimize their authority, adding that the outcome was disastrous as sometimes it backfired.