“Examine the functional as well as dysfunctional aspects of religion in a pluralistic society taking India and the United States of America as illustrative models.” (2004)
Émile Durkheim saw religion as a source of solidarity. Robert K. Merton (Social Theory and Social Structure, 1949) rejected the “postulate of functional unity” and noted that in societies with several faiths religion can be dysfunctional, dividing rather than binding. India and the United States, two large religiously plural democracies with different secular models, test both claims.
Two plural settings
- United States: a Christian-majority but diversifying society. Pew Research Center’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study found 62% Christian, 29% unaffiliated and 7% of other faiths. The First Amendment separates church and state, and religion flourishes in a free market of denominations.
- India: Census 2011 counted Hindus at 79.8%, Muslims 14.2%, Christians 2.3% and Sikhs 1.7%, alongside Buddhists, Jains and others. The state follows what Rajeev Bhargava calls “principled distance”, protecting minority rights under Articles 25–30 and recognising personal laws.
Functional and dysfunctional aspects compared
| Aspect | United States | India |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | Robert N. Bellah’s “civil religion” (1967): “In God We Trust”, presidential oaths and a sense of national mission sit above denominations | Constitutional patriotism alongside sarva dharma sambhava; shared shrines, Sufi and Bhakti syncretism |
| Identity for newcomers | Will Herberg (Protestant–Catholic–Jew, 1955): immigrants became American by keeping their religion | Minority religious institutions preserve language and culture (Parsis, Sikhs, Christians of the North-East) |
| Welfare and social change | Black churches led the civil rights movement under Martin Luther King Jr.; faith charities fill welfare gaps | Mission schools and hospitals; the Sikh langar; B. R. Ambedkar’s Buddhist conversion (1956) against caste |
| Conflict | “Culture wars” over abortion and sexuality; the Dobbs decision (2022) polarised religious and secular America | Partition violence, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots; disputes over shrines and conversion |
| Hate and exclusion | Oak Creek gurdwara shooting (2012, six killed); Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue attack (2018, eleven killed) | Pew 2021: 36% of Hindus would not accept a Muslim neighbour; 65% of both Hindus and Muslims call communal violence a very big problem |
| Legitimation of inequality | Religion invoked historically to justify slavery and segregation | Scriptural sanction of caste and gender exclusion, contested in Indian Young Lawyers Association (Sabarimala, 2018) |
What the comparison reveals
- Functions are group-specific: as Merton argued, what integrates a community internally can alienate it from others. Strong in-group bonding appears in both countries.
- Structure matters more than belief: in the US, religious conflict is mostly channelled into courts, lobbies and elections. In India, where religion overlaps with territory, historical memory and electoral mobilisation, conflict has more often erupted as riots.
- Different state models, similar tensions: American separation coexists with a civil religion steeped in biblical imagery, while India’s principled distance invites charges of both appeasement and majoritarianism.
- Plurality also restrains dysfunction: 53% of Indians in the Pew survey said religious diversity benefits the country. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell (American Grace, 2010) found that interfaith ties raise tolerance in America.
Conclusion
In both societies religion is neither simply cement nor dynamite. It performs integrative, welfare and emancipatory functions, but becomes dysfunctional when fused with political power or group grievance. The balance depends on constitutional safeguards, civic institutions and everyday contact across communities, not on religion itself.