ABSTRACT
The term ‘syncretism’ is often used in anthropology and history as if it were a transparent, descriptive term, referring to the ‘borrowing, affirmation, or integration of concepts, symbols, or practices of one religious tradition into another by a process of selection and reconciliation’ (Berlin 1980:9). However, like many terms used to describe aspects of religion, indeed like the term ‘religion’ itself, it has a peculiar Western history. I cannot trace that history in any detail here, but, before looking at ‘syncretism’ in the Indian context, I would like to point out that the term is hardly a neutral one in modern Christian history, that it is part both of religious debate itself and of the description and analysis of that debate. Moreover, I want to suggest that the term ‘syncretism’ refers to a politics of difference and identity and that as such the notion of power is crucial in its understanding. At stake is the power to identify true religion and to authorize some practices as ‘truthful’ and others as ‘false’. Syncretism is regarded positively by some, as promoting tolerance and negatively by others, as promoting the decline of the pure faith. Finally, I want to suggest that the role played by the term ‘syncretism’ in societies with religious cultures is played by the term ‘multiculturalism’ in societies with secular cultures. While the bulk of this chapter is devoted to the Indian case with which I am most familiar, I want to put this case in a broader framework by, first, looking at these terms in the context of the Christian West.
