Citation

Imre R, Jose J. Relig. State Soc. 2010; 38(2): 153.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/09637491003726661

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this paper we argue that the conjunctions of religion and politics through eruptions of violence are codetermined and codependent through syncretic manifestations rather than a result of some kind of basic clash between different, self-contained systems of ideas and values. The vicissitudes of religious fervour are linked to issues of development and social change in which long-cherished traditions are confronted by seemingly inexorable forces beyond the control of those being affected by them. Religious violence is a political movement which should be understood as not being outside modernisation in the sense of being opposed to it; it is in fact part of the development of modernisation. Resistance arises from the experience of being excluded from the fruits of modernity while at the same time being enmeshed within the multiple social relations underpinning the production and distribution of those 'fruits'. Whether from a postmodern or from a more conventional perspective a totalising analysis organised around master concepts like 'globalisation' or 'civilisation' is often developed to explain the intersections of religion and violence. We reject these approaches in favour of one predicated on the idea of the 'governance state'. It is our argument that this better captures the core axis of analysis - namely the changing nature of the state and its management of populations and the concomitant forms of resistance by those subjected to it in an era in which such 'modernities' are played out.