A Comparative Analysis of Russian and Indian Secularism

A Comparative Analysis of Russian and Indian Secularism
Author: Puranjay Vedi
Publisher: Ethics International Press
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2024-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1804416398

Secularism is a practice which entails building a ‘wall of separation’ between State and Religion. The general understanding is that this wall helps in prohibiting intervention from either side. However, since the State acts as a guardian of the public interest it may interfere in religious affairs, essentially, to dilute and de-circumscribe the limits of religious orthodoxy. It is, however, pertinent to note that some interventions in religious affairs are made even though there is no valid reason. One such example is the atheistic policy of the Russian state. The objective of this book is to compare the different models of secularism practiced in Russia and India respectively, and lay down some guiding principles which a secular State can adopt to rehabilitate a religion which was subjected to unwarranted State interventions.

Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey

Regimes of Ethnicity and Nationhood in Germany, Russia, and Turkey
Author: Şener Aktürk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139851691

Akturk discusses how the definition of being German, Soviet, Russian and Turkish radically changed at the turn of the twenty-first century. Germany's ethnic citizenship law, the Soviet Union's inscription of ethnic origins in personal identification documents and Turkey's prohibition on the public use of minority languages, all implemented during the early twentieth century, underpinned the definition of nationhood in these countries. Despite many challenges from political and societal actors, these policies did not change for many decades, until around the turn of the twenty-first century, when Russia removed ethnicity from the internal passport, Germany changed its citizenship law and Turkish public television began broadcasting in minority languages. Using a new typology of 'regimes of ethnicity' and a close study of primary documents and numerous interviews, Sener Akturk argues that the coincidence of three key factors – counterelites, new discourses and hegemonic majorities – explains successful change in state policies toward ethnicity.

Is Non-western Democracy Possible?: A Russian Perspective

Is Non-western Democracy Possible?: A Russian Perspective
Author: Alexei D Voskressenski
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2017-05-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9813147393

This book, with theoretical and practical analyses of comparative political systems of Eastern countries (Asia and Africa), their political process and political cultures, describes and analyses the influence of political culture on political process in the Eastern world. It gives readers an opportunity to make a comparative appraisal of maturity of civil society in these countries as well as their specifics in political interactions and internal political competition seen through the eyes of a group of distinguished Russian researchers. The book concentrates also on specifics of political-economic and political modernization in the East, and assesses the prospects of an emergence of a Western as well as a non-Western democracy in the framework of Eastern political transformations. It also explains why the one-dimensional spread of democracy — completely negating or neglecting regional political-cultural specifics — may lead to war among civilizations instead of the formation of a more just and fair system of democratic governance.

Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference

Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference
Author: Linell E. Cady
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2013-11-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231162480

Global struggles over women’s roles, rights, and dress have taken center stage in a drama that casts the secular and the religious in tense if not violent opposition. Advocates for equality speak of the issue in terms of rights and modern progress while reactionaries ground their authority in religious and scriptural appeals. Both sides presume women’s emancipation is tied to secularization. This volume upsets these certainties by blending diverse voices and traditions, both secular and religious, in studies historicizing, questioning, and testing the implicit links between secularism and expanded freedoms for women. Rather than treat secularism as the answer to conflicts over gender and sexuality, these essays show how it structures the conditions generating them.

Religion in Secular Archives

Religion in Secular Archives
Author: Sonja Luehrmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199943621

Russian archives contain a wealth of information on religiosity during the Soviet era, but most of it is written from the hostile perspective of officials and scholars charged with promoting atheism. Based on archival research in locations as diverse as the multi-religious Volga region, Moscow, and Texas, this book argues that much can be learned about Soviet religiosity by a focus not just on what documents say but also on what their originators did.

The Politics of Secularism

The Politics of Secularism
Author: Murat Akan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9780231181815

Murat Akan reframes the question of secularism, exploring its presence both outside and inside Europe and offering a rich empirical account of how it moves across borders and through time. Akan uses France and Turkey to analyze comparative discussions of secularism, struggles for power, and historical contextual constraints.

Games of life and land: A comparative analysis of the origins of true enclaves in South and Central Asia, their impacts on public policy, and factors prolonging their existence

Games of life and land: A comparative analysis of the origins of true enclaves in South and Central Asia, their impacts on public policy, and factors prolonging their existence
Author:
Publisher: KW Publishers Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 73
Release: 2014-01-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9385714589

Previous works discussing the enclaves shared between India and Bangladesh, or the enclaves of Central Asia, have centered primarily on their historical origins and on their inhabitants’ living conditions. This monograph briefly reviews these works while making a comparison between the enclaves of the two regions. It then adds to the existing literature with an argument that international enclaves stymie the expressed and assumed development interests of both India and Kyrgyzstan. Finally, it considers potential explanations for the continued existence of enclaves in both South and Central Asia, despite the harm these geographical features surely cause for their ‘owning’ states and peoples. The work follows research conducted by the author as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute of Foreign Policy Studies at the University of Calcutta, and precedes a separate comprehensive study of public service delivery in the Kyrgyz exclave village Barak conducted by the author with the support of the United Nations Development Programme later in 2013..

The Image of Islam in Russia

The Image of Islam in Russia
Author: Greg Simons
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2020-12-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000297462

This book covers the developing and important issue of the role and place of Islam in the increasingly complex dynamics of Russian politics. It is achieved by examining various aspects of Islam and Muslims in Russia from a multidisciplinary perspective. Islam and Muslims are currently at the forefront of popular culture, mass media and political imaginations in the age of the ‘Global War on Terrorism’. Frequently, these are for the ‘wrong’ reasons as they are not well understood, but rather stereotypically misrepresented, often for various political reasons. Russia is also highly stereotyped; the diverse and mysterious country is often misunderstood in terms of the communicated cultural, social and political images. This book is an attempt to expose and analyse the wealth in diversity of Islam and Muslims in Russia, a country where different religions have occupied the same political spaces, for better and worse, for many centuries. The content of this book is focused upon the contemporary social, political, cultural and identity contexts of Russia in terms of the interrelated dynamics and forces that are shaping the relations and place of Islam and Muslims in Russia today. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Religion, State & Society.

Russian Nationalism Since 1856

Russian Nationalism Since 1856
Author: Astrid S. Tuminez
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780847688845

This thoughtful book describes the range of nationalist ideas that have taken root in Russia since 1856. Drawing on a wide range of archival documents and unparalleled interview material from the post-Soviet period, Tuminez analyzes two cases_Russian panslavism in 1856-1878 and great power nationalism in 1905-1914_when aggressive nationalist ideas clearly influenced Russian foreign policy and contributed to decisions to go to war. Yet not all forms of nationalism have been malevolent, and the author assesses competing nationalist ideologies in the post-Soviet period to clarify the conditions under which a particularly belligerent nationalism could flourish and influence Russian international behavior.