week 5

Throughout our course we have been talking about the idea of "us" v. "them" and the in-group/out-group dichotomy that religion provides. The connection/commitment one feels to those in their belief system, and the resulting separation from those of other belief systems, is extremely strong. Especially when put in the context of the 'cosmic war' and thousands of years of struggle, this separation seems to quickly turn into animosity and hate. In Sudir Kakar's The Colors of Violence, we can see this "us" v. "them" manifest itself in the social construction of the city of Hyderabad. When describing how the city has become more and more culturally diverse as it has grown over the years, we can see that although these cultures all exist together in the same physical space, they remain distinct and somewhat intolerant of each other. As Kakar writes, “these groups tended to cluster together in separate enclaves where they could follow their own ways of religious and community life” (Kakar, 10). In addition to this, he explains how, “on the whole, the lifestyles of the various groups in the rest of the population – their customs, mores, architectural styles, food habits – remained distinctive” (Kakar, 10). This illustrates how the relationship between the Hindu’s and Muslim’s in Hyderabad is a “multicultural coexistence rather than any merger into a single composite culture” (Kakar 10). This is important to note because it shows how the power of religion transcends all other aspects of social togetherness and acts to maintain a separation and hinder assimilation. It makes me wonder if the interconnected world that trade and technology have created, which has produced a high level of cultural tolerance, will be able to facilitate the generation of any religious tolerance?