[5.0] Religion and development

Question 1

What is an example of how religion contributed to development?

Answer 1

Weber’s Protestant Ethic.

Question 2

What has globalisation in India done?

Answer 2

It has brought rapid economic growth to the country and raised India’s prominence on the political stage.

Question 3

What has globalisation brought to the Indian middle class?

Answer 3

Prosperity.

Question 4

What did Nanda (2008) write about?

Answer 4

The role of Hinduism in legitimating the rise of a new Hindu ultra-nationalism and the prosperity of the Indian middle class.

Question 5

What would secularisation theory predict about the religiosity of those who are in the newly prosperous Indian middle class?

Answer 5

It would suggest that these people would be the first to abandon religion, but the vast majority of the class still believes in the supernatural.

Question 6

What did the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (2007) find?

Answer 6

Indians are becoming more religious, 5% said that their religiosity had declined whereas 30% said it had got stronger.

Question 7

In India, what is fashionable?

Answer 7

It is fashionable to be religious and be seen to be so.

Question 8

Which gods are the middle class drawn to?

Answer 8

The village gods and goddesses who are seen to better respond to people’s needs than the traditional Hindu gods.

Question 9

What does Nanda reject as an explanation for the middle class’ religiosity?

Answer 9

Poverty and existential security, as they are not poor, but are very secure yet still religious.

Question 10

What does Nanda argue the religiosity is a response to?

Answer 10

Their ambivalence of their new found wealth, which stems from tension between traditional Hindu beliefs of renunciation of materialism and their new prosperity.

Question 11

What do the ‘tele-gurus’ preach?

Answer 11

Desire is not bad but is a manifestation of divinity that motivates people to do things.

Question 12

What is a secondary purpose of religious rituals?

Answer 12

They give people a chance to show off their wealth.

Question 13

What do modern versions of Hinduism do?

Answer 13

They legitimate the position of the middle class and allow them to adjust to globalised consumer capitalism.

Question 14

What did the Pew Global Attitude Survey find?

Answer 14

93% of Indians agreed with the statement ‘our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others’.

Question 15

What has Hinduism become?

Answer 15

A civil religion.

Question 16

What does the fact that Hinduism is a civil religion mean?

Answer 16

There is now a wider gulf between Hindus and non-Hindus.

Question 17

What else has Hinduism influenced?

Answer 17

Public life, Hindu sciences such as astrology are now being taught as academic subjects in public universities.

Question 18

What is the Indian Ministry of Defence funding research into?

Answer 18

Weapons with magical powers described in Hindu texts.

Question 19

What is the Health Ministry funding research into?

Answer 19

The use of cow urine as a cure for all diseases.

Question 20

Which east Asian countries have successfully industrialised in recent years?

Answer 20

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

Question 21

How does Redding (1990) describe the Chinese post-Confucian values?

Answer 21

As encouraging hard work, discipline, frugality and a commitment to self-improvement - similar to the Protestant Ethic.

Question 22

What does Berger (2003) argue about Pentecostalism in Latin America?

Answer 22

He argues that it acts as a functional equivalent to the Protestant Ethic, encouraging capitalism in the same way Calvinism did.

Question 23

What kind of lifestyle does Pentecostalism demand?

Answer 23

An ascetic lifestyle, emphasising discipline, hard work and abstinence from alcohol.

Question 24

What else is needed other than religious ideas to lift a society out of poverty?

Answer 24

Natural material resources.

Question 25

What has spread throughout Europe in the past 500 years?

Answer 25

Christianity.

Question 26

What are the two phases that Lehmann (2002) distinguishes between?

Answer 26

Christianity accompanied colonisation at first, then was supported by the natives and gained a popular following from below.

Question 27

How is Pentecostalism diverse?

Answer 27

It incorporates local beliefs, and can create new local religious forms.

Question 28

Who does Pentecostalism appeal to?

Answer 28

The poor, who usually make up the vast majority of the population.