Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Challenges of Religious Terrorism


BOOK REVIEW:
Published in The Book Review, Volume XL, Number 3, March 2016, pp. 71-72, ISSN: 0970-4175

Deconstructing Terrorist Violence – Faith as a mask

Ram Puniyani
Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2015, pp. xxvi+180, 695.00

Lifeblood of Terrorism – Countering Terrorism Finance
Vivek Chadha
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2015, pp xiv + 258 pages, 509.00

Religious nationalism remains an important phenomenon in the last three decades, which has manifested itself in an explicit manner after the fall of the Soviet Union.   The books under review seek to study the phenomena of terror and violence, unleashed across the globe, which the authors argue, have deep linkages with the advent of religious nationalism. 

At the outset, Mark Jurgensmeyer’s argument about the rise of religious nationalism as the new ideology replacing the ideological strife of the cold war era, in terms of intensity may be relevant with reference to Punyani’s book.   The present world order since 9/11 in the USA, the series of terror strikes in countries like India and various European nations highlight the challenges of religious terrorism emanating from religious nationalism.
Also, another important development that bolsters the phenomena of religious centric terrorism is the overwhelming impact of the globalizing tendencies in the post Bretton Wood world order.  They seek a standardization and homogenization in terms of institutions of governance, trying to promote democracy and free market economy as an universal ideology along with the movement of labour and capital.
The works of Ram Puniyani and Vivek Chadha are  sincere attempts to unravel the complications and challenges to the secular and liberal social order in the present scenario.    The emergence of religious terror as a predominant discourse sometimes is juxtaposed according to Ram Puniyani, with the majoritarian sentiments backed by the state apparatus to the detriment of the minority community.
The challenges of religious terror are manifold as the authors argue that this phenomenon carries with itself, (a) devastating potentialities to undo all the major achievements in the modern secular world and, (b) to blur the geographical and national boundaries, in terms of movement of capital and support to terror activities in an age of transnationalism.   What is more critical is the evolution of terror networks through faith based organizations and money laundering in the name of serving the marginalized sections and addressing social evils through civil society organizations.
The recent trends of corporatization of terror outfits like the ISIS and the success of NGOs in topping the governments in some countries is a cause of concern, wherein the western attempts to foist democracy as an universal ideology has backfired, whilst enraging the various socio-cultural groups, leading to the mobilization and assertions, as Punyani’s argument suggests, that western attempts to foist democracy as an universal ideology has backfired leading to mobilization and assertion, which are attempts to confront the western hegemony through globalization.

Scholars have sought to trace the historical evolution of various group identities that fostered faith based terror outfits and resultant conflicts amongst them in South Asia and other regions.    This phenomenon has been aggravated by the western discourse under the stewardship of the United States to usher in an ‘universal jurisdiction’ to modernize and secularize the traditional societies.   The enterprise of ‘reconstructing’ in order to contain religious strife’s, is also fraught with its own consequences, notwithstanding the colonial legacy of major western powers propelled with the politics of memories, over their obliterating impact on the traditional societies.
In other words, the financial networks, money laundering networks and fund raising campaigns have the propensity to further the cause in the non-western world to establish a ‘high standard of morality’ in public life, to seek solace in a system wherein religious and political identities are fused.   The traditional notions of nations and nationalism is coming under severe strain due to globalization and deep penetrating power of Mcworld institutions. Vivek Chadha’s insightful assessment of the transformation of terror outfits across the globe, is akin to the global operations of MNCs seeking s a large number of background activities to create and launch the final product.    Chadha states that the cost of the product is not merely its market price, but the cumulative cost of its development.   This is vindicated by the series of networks between various terror outfits, drug cartels, and sections of banking and finance at a global level.
These challenges remain confounded as the two works suggest,( in wake of an ambivalent State in some nations) lack of means and will, for a concerted international response to confront the deep transnational religious linkages and their enormous financial networks.   The networks of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Tablighi Jama’at movements outside India, after the advent of neoliberal reforms, in many parts of the globe are significant indicators of adopting different strategies in different places for fund raising and recruitment. The role of Diasporas in contributing towards the long distance nationalism and religious terror merits attention.
The post 9/11 world era highlight the same predicament faced by various nations in addressing the societal challenges, that seeks to influence the socio-cultural realms and  influence their respective markets.   The concept of the global village as propounded by Marshall Mcluhan has become an intrinsic reality of the present world order.  However it has demonstrated the potentialities of fostering transnational collaboration and networks to further the cause of faith and terror, and movements against the tide of cultural homogenization.
The Challenges according to Punyani are the advent of Hindutva in India and their subsequent attempts for a strategic alliance, marked by the rise of Christian right across the globe.  This seeks to pursue belligerent means and goals of confronting the Muslim world and thrust democratic regimes in their neighbouring states.   This exercise is denounced on the ground that it would only facilitate the imperial forays of the US in their respective regions, at the cost of undermining the local, social, and traditional orders, probably falling into the Huntington trap to discredit and vilify Islamic world.
The traditional understanding of national security was confined to territorial security but ignored the well being of citizens as an essential component of national security.   In other words, national security required the safeguarding of national goals.   In the Indian scenario, where secularism is a core value in our national goals, they have been severely challenged by the series of communal conflagrations in India.
The books are a welcome intervention and try to bridge the divide between domestic and international politics. The south Asian region remains Indo-centric in terms of its geographical spread and asymmetrical power structure. Politicization of religion or fundamentalism of any kind is not peculiar to any particular country and a broad perspective needs to be adopted while exploring the linkages between terrorism, fundamentalism and globalization. Containing the terrorist violence and countering the lifeblood of terrorism calls for a concerted political will of all the nations around the globe and the larger question remains about the complicity of the state in religious conflicts, which could strip them of their neutrality and legitimacy.

Challenges of Religious Terrorism

BOOK REVIEW: Published in The Book Review, Volume XL, Number 3, March 2016, pp. 71-72, ISSN: 0970-4175 Deconstructing Terrorist Vio...