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Secularisation

Submitted by:

Submitted to:

Parneet Kaur Saroy

Dr. Anupam

B.A.LL.B (Hons.)
55/13, Sec-A

Acknowledgement
The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of
guidance and assistance from many people and I am extremely
fortunate to have got this all along the completion of my
project work. Whatever I have done is only due to such
guidance and assistance and I would not forget to thank them.
I owe my profound gratitude to my project guide Dr.Anupam,
who took keen interest on our project work and guided us all
along, till the completion of our project work by providing all
the necessary information for developing a good system.
Parneet Kaur Saroy.

Index

Introduction:
Secularization or secularisation is the transformation of a society from close identification
with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular
institutions. The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies progress,
particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all
aspects of social life and governance. The term secularization is also used in the context of
the lifting of the monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.1
Secularization refers to the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural
significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes
restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations
have little social power.2
Secularisation, according to Peter Berger, is the process by which sectors of society and
culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols.3 Weber
considered secularisation as the process of rationalisation.4
Many sociologists maintain that Western societies are undergoing a process of secularization.
This means that the influence of religion in all areas of social life is steadily diminishing.
Bryan Wilson, who supports this view, defines secularization as the process whereby
religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance. Like all key concepts in
sociology, the concept of secularization has been used in a variety of ways. From his review
of studies on secularization, Larry Shiner states that the lack of agreement on what
secularization is and how to measure it stands out above everything else. Any research on
secularization must begin with a definition of religion. Immediately problems arise because
of the absence of a generally accepted definition. Differing views of religion will result in
differing views of secularization. Glock and Stark argue that, Perhaps the most important
attribute of those who perceive secularization to be going on is their commitment to a
particular view of what religion means. Thus one should see the essential characteristics of
religion as worship in a religious institution. As a result he may see a decline in church
attendance as evidence of secularization or see as having nothing to do with attending a
religious institution.
1.
2.
3.
4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularization, 4:30 pm, 16/2/2015.


Ibid
Society in India: Concepts, Theories & Recent Trends, Ram Ahuja (2009), Rawat Publications, 1-504/267.
Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, M Haralambos & R.M. Heald (1980), Oxford University Press, 1-594/473.

In an attempt to clarify the issue, studies of secularization will be classified in terms of some
of the many ways in which the process has been conceptualized and measured.
Participation:
Some researchers have seen religious institutions and activity associated with them as the key
element in religious behaviour. Church attendance and marriages performed in church are
factors which form basis of this view. Statistics on church attendance in England and Wales
indicate a steady decline over the past century. There has also been a steady, though less
sharp, decrease in the number of baptisms, confirmations, church marriages and Sunday
school attendances. The decline in church oriented religious activity has been paralleled by a
decrease in the numbers of clergy. Researchers who see a decline in institutional religion as
an indication of a more general decline of religion in society are influenced by the traditional
view that a religious person goes to church.5
David Martin argues that church attendance was more strongly motivated by non-religious
factors such as middle class respectability. Today, church attendance is no longer an
indication of respectability for many members of the middle class. Thus, their absence from
church may have nothing to do with a change in their religious belief. Bellah argues that there
has been a move from collective worship to privatized worship and from clerical to individual
interpretation f doctrine.6
Disengagement and Differentiation:
Some researchers have seen the truly religious society as one in which the church as an
institution, is directly involved in every important area of social life. David Martin states that
this view is concerned with the ecclesiastical institution, and specifically with any decline in
its power, wealth, influence, range of control and prestige.
Compared to its role in Medieval Europe, the church in contemporary Western society has
undergone process of disengagement. In the Middle Ages, there was a union of church and
state. Ecclesiastical control of education and social welfare has been superseded by secular
organizations. Talcott Parson agrees that the church as an institution has lost many of its
former functions. He argues that the evolution of society involves a process of structural
differentiation. According to him the religious beliefs still give meaning and significance to
life.7
5.
6.
7.

Supra 4, 474.
Ibid.
Supra 4, 476.

Religious Pluralism:
Some researchers imply that the truly religious society has one faith and one church. This
picture is influenced by the situation in some small-scale, non-literate societies, such as the
Australian aborigines, where the community is a religious community. Members share a
common faith and at certain times of the year, the entire community gathers to express this
faith in religious rituals.
In terms of Durkheims view of religion, the community is the church. In contemporary
Western societies, one church has been replaced by many. The multiplicity of denomination
and sects have replaced the common faith and the established church. In particular, it has
been argued that a range of competing religious institutions has reduced the power of religion
in society.
Bryan Wilson argues that if there are a number of denominations in society, each with its own
version of the truth, they can at best only reflect and legitimate the beliefs of a section of the
population. In this way, religious values now cease to be community values.
There has been a movement towards the unity of Christian churches and denominations
known as the Ecumenical movement. This may reverse the trend towards religious
pluralism. Wilson however, interprets the ecumenical movement as further evidence of
secularization. He argues that Organizations amalgamate when they are weak rather than
when they are strong, since alliance means compromise and amendments of commitment.
Religion and Society- Generalization
The focus changes to a more general view of the role of religion in Western society. It is
concerned with the influence of religious beliefs and values on social norms and values,
social action and consciousness. Four main views of the changing role of religion in society
are classified under four headings of Generalization, Individuation, transformation and
desacrilization.
Individuation: Robert.N. Bellah states that , The analysis of modern man as secular,
materialistic, dehumanized and in the deepest sense areligious seems to me fundamentally
misguided. Bellah argues that sociologists who judge the significance of religion in terms of
religious institutions are mistaken. He maintains that now less than ever can mans search for
meaning be confined to the church. Religion is increasingly an individual quest for meaning
rather than a collective act of worship. In this way religion has undergone a process of
individuation whereby the individual works out his own salvation and follows his own path to
ultimate meaning. Modern man has a greater freedom than ever before to search for and
construct his own ultimate meaning.
Many researchers would argue that Bellah has stretched the concept of religion too far. In
addition, Bellah fails to provide detailed evidence to show that the search for ultimate
meaning is widespread in contemporary Western society.

Transformation: Weber believed that ascetic Protestantism contained the seeds of its own
destruction. It encouraged involvement and success in this world. Its strict disciplines
provided a rational outlook on life. Once its teachings were incorporated into a rational
capitalist system, religious direction and validation were rapidly eroded. Two factors were
instrumental in transforming ascetic Protestantism into secular guides to action. The first is
the secularizing influence of wealth. Wealth provides its own rewards and satisfactions. As
a result material goods have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the
lives of men as at no previous period of history. The spirit of religious asceticism is no
longer necessary because victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations,
needs its support no longer.8
Desacrilization: A number of sociologists have argued that the sacred has little or no place in
contemporary Western society, that society has undergone a process of desacrilization. This
means that supernatural forces are no longer seen as mans consciousness has become
secularized.
Max Weber claimed that industrial society is characterized by rationalization and
intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world. The world is no
longer charged with mystery and magic: the supernatural has been banished from society. The
meanings and motives which direct action are now rational.
According to Wilson, religious thinking is perhaps the area which evidences most
conspicuous change. Men act less and less in response to religious motivation: they assess the
world in empirical and rational terms. He argues that a rational world view is the enemy of
religion. It is based on the testing of arguments and beliefs by rational procedures, on
assessing truth by means of factors which can be quantified and objectively measured.
Religion is based on faith and as such is non-rational. Its claim to truth cannot be tested by
rational procedures.9

8.supra 4,483.
9.supra 4,485.

Secularization in India:
British rule brought with it a process of secularization of Indian social life and culture, a
tendency that gradually became stronger with the development of communications, growth of
towns and cities, increased spatial mobility, and the spread of education. The two world wars,
and the, Mahatma Gandhis civil disobedience campaigns, both of which socially and
politically mobilized the masses, also contributed to increased secularization. And with
independence there began a deepening as well as a broadening of the secularization process
as witnessed in such measures as the declaration of India as a secular state, the Constitutional
recognition of the equality of all citizens before the law, the introduction of universal adult
suffrage, and the undertaking of a program of planned development.
The term secularization implies that what was previously regarded as religious is now
ceasing to be such, and it also implies a process of differentiation which results in the various
aspects of society, economic, political, legal and moral, becoming increasingly discrete in
relation to each other. The distinction between Church and State, and the Indian concept of a
secular state, both assume the existence of such differentiation.
Another essential element in secularization is rationalism, a comprehensive expression
applied to various theoretical and practical tendencies which aim to interpret the universe
purely in terms of thought, or which aim to regulate individual and social life in accordance
with the principles of reason and to eliminate as far as possible or to relegate to the
background everything irrational. Rationalism involves the replacement of traditional beliefs
and ideas by modern knowledge.10
The concepts of pollution and purity which are central as well as pervasive in Hinduism were
greatly weakened as a result of the operation of a variety of factors. Different sections among
Hindus are affected in different degrees by it, and generally speaking the new elite are
probably much more effected by it than everyone else. Pollution may refer to uncleanliness,
defilement, impurity short of defilement and indirectly even to sinfulness, while purity refers
to cleanliness, spiritual merit and indirectly to holiness. The structural distance between
various castes is defined in terms of pollution and purity. A higher caste is always pure in
relation to a lower caste and in order to retain it higher status it should abstain from certain
forms of contact with the lower. Corresponding to the caste hierarchy are hierarchies in food,
occupation and styles of life. The highest castes are vegetarian as well as teetotallers, while
the lowest eat meat and consume indigenous liquor. Among occupations, those involving
manual work are rated lower than those which do not. Manual occupation may involve the
handling of dirty or polluting objects, or engaging in butchery which is regarded as sinful.11
10. Social Change in Modern India, M.N Srinivas (2004), Orient Longman Private Ltd., 126.
11. Id, 127.

The notion of pollution and purity has weakened and become less pervasive in the last few
decades as a result of the various forces. Urban life sets up its own pressures, and a mans
daily routine, his place of residence, the times of his meals, are influenced by his job than by
caste and religion. As a result of the spread of education among all sections of the society,
traditional ideas of purity are giving way to the rules of hygiene.
Another area which has been affected by the secularization process is life-cycle ritual.
Ceremonies such as name-giving, the first tonsure and annual ritual of changing the sacred
thread are beginning to be dropped. For girls, the attainment of puberty is no longer marked
by the elaborate ritual that characterized it a few decades ago. The shaving of a Brahmin
widows head, as part of the funeral rite for her dead husband has also largely disappeared,
and among the educated, widow marriage is no longer strongly disapproved.12
Another evidence of increased secularization is the enormous importance assumed by the
institutions of dowry in the last few decades. Dowry is paid not only among Brahmins , but
also among a number of high-caste groups all over India. The huge sums demanded as Dowry
Prohibition Act. 13
Education changed the outlook of girls and gave them new ideas and aspirations. It certainly
made them less particular about pollution rules and rituals, though as long as they lived with
their affines they could not completely ignore them.14
The orthodox elements in Hindu society were put continuously on the defensive ever since
the early years of the nineteenth century when European missionaries began attacking
Hinduism for its many ills and shortcomings. While the Hindu elite deeply resented such
attacks, they were themselves sufficiently Westernized to be able to take a critical view of
their religion. Thus began a long era of reform of Hindu society and religion, and of
reinterpretation of the latter. The path of the reformers was far from smooth; in fact, they
were martyrs to the cause of modernization of Hindu and Indian society and culture.15
The orthodox elements among the Hindus, the foremost among them being priestly
Brahmins, steadily lost Prestige in the face of growing secularization and modernization of
Hindu life and culture.16

12. supra 10, 132.


13. Id, 133.
14.Id, 134.
15. Id, 139.
16. Ibid.

The changes have occurred in the Indian village community have resulted in its more
effective integration with the wider economic, political, educational and religious systems.
The vast improvement in rural communications that has taken place in the last few decades,
especially since World War II,17 the introduction of universal adult franchise and self
government at various levels from the national to the village, the abolition of Untouchability,
the increased popularity of education among rural folk, and the Community Development
Program-all these are changing the aspirations and attitudes of villagers.18

The Indian family system, like caste, is resilient, and has shown great adaptability to modern
forces. The Government too, is playing an important role in modernizing society through
legislation and other means. It is doing this in spite of the fact that the Constitution declares
India to be a secular state. Changes have also been introduced in Hindu personal and family
law: bigamy is punishable offence; divorce and inter caste and widow re-marriage are
permitted; and widows and daughters have been given shares in ancestral immovable
property.19

In a word, Hinduism is becoming increasingly, though very slowly, dissociated from its
traditional social structure of caste, kinship and village community, and is becoming
associated with the state, political parties and organizations promoting Indian culture.
Traditional institutions such as monasteries and temples, cults of saints, and pilgrimages have
shown resilience and adaptability to new circumstances. Mass media such as the films, radio,
books and newspapers are playing their part in carrying Hinduism to all sections of the Hindu
population, and in the very process of such popularization are reinterpreting the religion.20

17. Supra 10, 142.


18. Ibid.
19. Supra 10, 144.
20. Id, 151.

Conclusion:

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