The rationale for this book is that although religion is embedded in societies and intertwined with many aspects of people’s lives in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, and some aspects of these links have been analysed, an overview of the available research is lacking. Conceiving of religion, culture and society as dimensions of social life which are constructed and contested, the four general analytical questions that are addressed in the book are identified: how do people experience and understand religion, in what religious practices do they engage, how does religion inform people’s values and ethics, and how do people’s beliefs and values inform their views and behaviour with respect to key dimensions of their own lives and right social ordering at the local level?

Following a brief review of the recent disciplinary literature and sources of evidence on the links between religion, day-to-day lives and social relationships, the remainder of the chapter describes aspects of the religious context in the two regions on which the analysis centres, focusing in particular on trends in affiliation with and religiosity within the major faith traditions on which the analysis focuses: Buddhism, Christianity, folk religions, Hinduism and Islam.