Globalisation: Religious revival in the Post Colonial World.
Third World- Third Ideology:
Religious Revival In the Developing World:
The seemingly unexplainable rise in the penetration of religion into developing societies, and the impact of many faiths on political realities is, or at least has been, a source of both considerable embarrassment and some puzzlement for many social scientists working and writing in the field of development studies. The theorists of the modernisation perspective as would be expected assert that far from extending the catchment and depth of religious fervour the spread of urbanisation, industrialisation and literacy should bring about increasing secularisation.
Religious adherence, with the possible exception of rationalised and secular Protestantism is viewed as backward looking, traditionalist and a brake on the social development of a modern Nation State. As the social and economic fabric of a traditional society is transformed by the development of a modern economy with a literate populace, religious goals may be expected to be replaced by the essentially rational motivations of the market place.
For the Dependency school, with the materialist influence of the Work of Marx as it's foundation the growth in religion is almost as problematic. The urbanised proletariat seeing the reality of the conflictual and ideological nature of their position will eventually reject the metaphysical promises of "pie in the sky when you die" and take by force their share of the pie now.
Given the discomforting nature of the facts of religious growth in the developing world is not surprising that little work has been done until very recently in this area of the sociology of the developing world.
While I accept that this is a gross oversimplification of the main schools of thought in the field of global socio-economics, there does appear to have been some reluctance until very recently to examine the spread of certain religious faiths and the relationship that this spread has to "development" and modernisation.
Both schools do seem, surprisingly, to have missed of misinterpreted a great deal of historical evidence regarding the relationship between religion and literacy or urbanisation even from the First World. In the rapidly industrialising north of England and in the industrial centres of Wales for example, the spread of literacy and urbanisation, during the nineteenth century, were accompanied by not a contraction of religious fervour but it's rapid growth and expansion. In the rise of Methodism and in particular the socially hierarchical churches of Manchester and the Valleys there is a good example of just such a phenomena. The rise of highly devotional Catholicism amongst newly arrived Irish Immigrants in late nineteenth century New York is another illustration of the connection between the two factors.
In India during the period of British rule, the Northern states were so see a significant revival in the form of, and in the number of adherents to Islam. Key to this development was the introduction of print technology- the technology of mass communications was to have unexpected and unwanted affects in the Empires most profitable Colony: The advent of books, periodicals and newspapers creates a public sphere in which the literate can participate. The institution of public debates and lectures adds to the vitality of activity in this sphere while .. also extending its boundaries to the semi-literate. That the creation and enlargement of the public sphere provides the conditions for the rise of socio-political movements has long been taken for granted.
However, it is just as possible for the arrival of the media of communications to give rise to and to sustain a religious movement This was the case with the Islamic revival in British India, especially under the leadership of the ulama of Deoband in the last four decades of the nineteenth century. (Siad Amir Arjomand) in "Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change" JA Beckford et al- p88.
Not unsurprisingly the revitalisation of Islam in India was to be a subject of much concern for the colonial administration and in particular for the many Christian missions that had been established by that time. In addition to the technology however Islam was to provide, in India then just as much later in many other areas an ideology of resistance to imperial rule. The upsurge in Islam in North Africa in the post war period and in particular in Algeria there was a conscious element that explicitly identified Islam with resistance "French Colonial Rule and the menace of cultural "Frenchization" acted as a powerful factor in initiating a movement in defence of the Islamic tradition." (Arjomand op cit p91) The Islamic Revolution in Iran much more recently provides another example of the alignment of a particular sect of Islam with a generalised socio-political movement towards some form of national liberation. Indeed the rise of The Imam in Iran is also indicative of a connection between the widespreaddissemination of literacy skills, rapid urbanisation, and movements of religious revitalisation.
What is also of interest and perhaps has some explanatory power when examining the rise of religious movements throughout the developing world is the social base of the Iranian revolution. In the academic sphere in Iran it was not the human or social sciences that were to be the catchment of Islamic fundamentalism: overwhelmingly it was the professions, law, medicine, science and technology that were to ally with the Immans. This however was insufficient to give the Revolution a popular mass power base.
The Islamic societies that were to provide this was to recruit in the newly urbanised poor. Rural to Urban migration during the period 1966-1976 provided over 35% of the increase in Urban population in Iran. Many of these new immigrants whilst almost certainly followers of Islam in the rural landscape became devout adherents participating in societies and devotional activity with increased fervour in the cities.
In Latin America the Catholic church, or at least many of its clerics have been instrumental in providing a public platform for the grievances of the poor. To their shame the established hierarchy of the Roman Church has often viewed such overtly political activity by its servants with disapproval, despite the risks that many have chosen to run and the price that some have paid.
In Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, despite predictions to the contrary African religious sects, have survived in many cases with the collusion of the more established churches for example the Umbanda cult in Brazil.
The Caribbean itself has seen the rise of both imported variants of Christianity in particular the seventh Day Adventists and also the rise of new entirely indigenous religious forms such as Rastafarianism, drawn from the teachings of the Afro- American Nationalist Marcus Garvey.
Some common factors in the morass of heterogeneous forms of worship do emerge that suggest that the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation do not necessarily bring about an increasingly secularised society and populace, whether in the short term or in the foreseeable future. The forms of development, and the historically specific starting point of development, in the Third World has opened an opportunity that religious revivalism has filled in many cases- perhaps only religion could fulfil the multi-faceted needs of the people of the Third world, in particular those at the margin of society. Firstly, in the context of post-colonial struggle many sought and found in some variant of a religious faith an ideology that was authentically resistant to the colonial or neocolonialism powers- that is that some religions notably Islam and Ratafarianism provide authentic forms of resistance to domination by the West that are rooted in the history and traditions of the people. Most religious revitalisations in the Third World during post war period have had such a political dimension.
Secondly for the newly arrived socially isolated individual or family migrating to a new urban area participation in religious observance can provide a wider range of social contacts than many other activities, and unlike political or labour organisations are far less likely to attract the repressive forces of the sate of the ruling elite.
Thirdly for the individual and collective consciousness of the third world religious activity, in particular devout and devotional worship can play a key element in providing a sense of identity, belonging and- at the level of the Nation State- of citizenship.
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