ABSTRACT
The interplay of religion and politics is often described as a volatile mix;1 and political scientists and politicians have long insisted that these two entities should remain separated from each other. Over recent decades, the ground realities have changed dramatically. Religion, once consigned to the so-called private sphere, has moved into the public arena. Since the 1980s, religion and religio-political forces have become potent influences in the domestic politics of many countries irrespective of geographical location, stages of economic growth, and systems of governance. The growing importance of religion as a marker of identity and a tool of political mobilization is reshaping the political landscape in an unprecedented manner. Nowhere is this more evident than in South Asia – one of the world’s most populous regions with around one and a quarter billion people. Here live the world’s largest populations of Muslims and Hindus, with a significant number of Buddhists. Religion had played a key role in South Asian politics even before the recent resurgence; the partition of India in 1947 is a case in point. In fact, one can find many instances in the long history of South Asia even if they are not as dramatic and as cataclysmic as the partition. Equally important to note is that colonial rule created a context in which religiously defined sub-nationalism, or “communalism,” emerged.2
