Syncretism in the Hindu Right as Intentionally Incomplete Proximity

Religious syncretism can function as an instrument of inter-group control and domination. Rather than consistently promoting cross-religious forbearance and knowledge, syncretism enables a proximity that allows forms of violence otherwise inaccessible to religious majoritarian groups. By choreographing performances of syncretism between themselves and a subordinate religious community, organizations like the Indian Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) produce an intentionally incomplete proximity. This proximity draws close minority groups like the RSS’ Muslim wing, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, but without allowing final inclusion or incorporation. Muslim proximity to the RSS becomes a spectacle of humiliation and domination rather than a measure of inclusion into the Hindu right. Muslims must perform Hindu nationalist religious rituals, while denigrating mainstream Islamic tradition. Drawing on extensive interview-based fieldwork with the RSS and the Manch, I argue that syncretism can function as domination because it reinforces ethnic hierarchies, but that this domination is not a form of hierarchical encompassment. Rather, subordinate religious groups are kept in a perpetual humiliating limbo as a way to reify the superiority of a dominant religious group.

作为刻意不完整的接近性的印度教右翼的宗教融合主义

关键词：宗教融合主义, 印度教民族主义, 国民志愿服务团, 印度穆斯林, 穆斯林国民阵线。

宗教融合主义可以成为群体间控制和支配的工具。宗教融合主义并非一贯地推动跨宗教宽容和知识，而是促成了一种接近关系，使得宗教多数派得以行使一些否则会无法获取的暴力形式。诸如印度的印度教民族主义的国民志愿服务团（RSS）之类的组织通过设计操作自己和从属的宗教社群之间的融合主义的表演，制造出一种刻意而为的不完整的接近性。这种接近性拉近了譬如国民志愿服务团的穆斯林侧翼——穆斯林国民阵线这种少数群体，但并不允许其最终的加入和整合。穆斯林与国民志愿服务团的接近变成了羞辱和支配的公开展示，而非一种包含到印度教右翼的方式。穆斯林必须表演印度教民族主义的宗教仪式，同时贬低主流的伊斯兰教传统。根据对国民志愿服务团和穆斯林国民阵线的深度访谈为基础的田野研究，我提出宗教融合主义之所以起到支配的作用是因为它强化了族群的等级制，但是这种支配并不是一种等级制的包含关系；相反，从属的宗教群体被置于一个永恒的羞辱性中间地带，作为固化主宰性的宗教群体的优越性的一种方式。

Translated from English by Li Guo