This book is aimed at making an comparative study of the relationship between religion and politics. It incorporates in its ambit a study of religion and politics in modern liberal democracies of Japan and India, the problem of secularism, religious and political intertwining in the historical perspective of western vis-?-vis Japanese and Indian experiences. It specifically studies the evolution of Soka Gakkai in Japan and its counterpart, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in India, and their being ultimately consumed by the temptation of political power. The study establishes that the political arms of Soka Gakkai and RSS respectively, i.e., Komeito in Japan and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India in their quest for power have been forced to assume amoral and ‘secular’ postures, proving thereby that they are no less or no more modern and opportunistic than other competing liberal democratic political parties, differences between them being strategic, not genetic. The study draws the conclusion that secularism as a concept and as an ideology has become an accepted ideal thanks to western impact in both Japan and India. However, the cultural context in which Komeito and the BJP arose as extensions of antecedent religious organisations has led to a situation where religion and politics have both become tools in an election machine that exists as a determinative entity in itself.
There are no reviews yet.