“Give a critical review of Emile Durkheim’s theory on religion and society. To what extent does it explain the contemporary scenario in Asia?” (2004)
In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Émile Durkheim defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things… which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them”. His core claim is that in worshipping the sacred, society worships itself.
The theory
- Sacred and profane: religion begins not with gods but with the separation of set-apart things from ordinary ones.
- Totemism among the Arunta of Australia is the elementary form. The totem is at once the clan’s emblem and its god, so the power people feel in it is the moral force of the group.
- Rituals periodically reassemble the group, renew the collective conscience and discipline members.
- Religion is therefore eternal in function: modern societies will produce new sacred objects, such as the nation, the flag or human rights.
Critical review
- Weak ethnography: E. E. Evans-Pritchard (Theories of Primitive Religion, 1965) doubted that totemism is typical or elementary, and argued that the sacred–profane split is not universal.
- Circularity: if religion is whatever unites a group, the theory cannot be falsified.
- Consensus bias: Karl Marx saw religion as ideology legitimating domination. Max Weber showed it can drive change, as the Protestant ethic did, rather than only mirror society.
- Enduring insight: Robert N. Bellah’s “Civil Religion in America” (1967) shows the approach remains productive.
How far it explains Asia
Where it explains
- India: according to Uttar Pradesh government estimates, the Maha Kumbh 2025 at Prayagraj drew over 66 crore visits in 45 days, a spectacular collective rite of renewal. The consecration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya (22 January 2024) fused sacred symbol and national identity, which is Durkheim’s society worshipping itself.
- Japan: most people call themselves non-religious yet visit shrines at New Year and hold Shinto and Buddhist rites of passage. This is ritual belonging without doctrinal belief.
- Sri Lanka: Article 9 of the 1978 Constitution gives Buddhism “the foremost place”, making it a civil religion of the Sinhala nation.
Where it fails
- Integration can exclude. Stanley J. Tambiah (Buddhism Betrayed?, 1992) showed Sinhala Buddhist nationalism fuelling ethnic violence. In Myanmar, the Ma Ba Tha movement secured the four race and religion protection laws (2015), and more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after August 2017. Solidarity for one group became persecution of another.
- State power: China’s “sinicisation of religion” subordinates faiths to the Communist Party, and in Indonesia Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) was jailed for blasphemy in 2017. Religion here is an arena of politics, not a mirror of consensus.
- Market religion: South Korea’s megachurches, such as Yoido Full Gospel Church, compete through prosperity theology. They are better explained by Rodney Stark’s religious-economy model.
- Pluralism: Asian societies hold several competing “churches” and syncretic practice, not the single moral community Durkheim assumed.
Conclusion
Durkheim explains well why religion in Asia binds: pilgrimage, ritual and religious nationalism all show societies sacralising themselves. He cannot explain against whom it binds, or how states and markets use it. A useful account of Asia joins his integrative insight to Weberian and conflict analyses of power.