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The Economics of Religion in India

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Description

Religion has not been a popular target for economic analysis. Yet the tools of economics can offer deep insights into how religious groups compete, deliver social products and services, and reach out to potential converts―how, in day by day life, religions nurture and deploy market power. Sriya Iyer puts these tools to use in an expansive, creative study of India, one of the religiously diverse countries on this planet.

Iyer explores how growth, inequality, education, technology, and social trends both have an effect on and are affected by religious groups. Her exceptionally rich data―drawn from ten years of research, including a survey of almost 600 religious organizations in seven states―reveal the many ways religions interact with social welfare and political conflict. After India’s economy was once liberalized in 1991, she shows, religious organizations substantially increased their provision of products and services, compensating for the retreat of the state. Iyer’s data also indicate that religious violence is more common where economic growth is higher, it seems that because growth increases inequality, which sectarian politicians might exploit to encourage hostility toward other religions. As inequality results in social polarization, religious doctrines turn into more extreme. But there are hopeful patterns in Iyer’s data, too. Religious organizations, on balance, play a positive role in India’s socioeconomic development, and women’s participation in religious life is on the upward push.

The Economics of Religion in India has much to teach us about India and other pluralistic societies the world over, and about the power of economics to illuminate some of societies’ deepest beliefs and dynamics.

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