Fundamentalism,
or religious fundamentalism, is a popular and oft-used term that has entered
relatively recently in the English lexicon. The Online Etymology Dictionary
states that the word was “coined in American English to name a movement among
Protestants circa 1920-25 based on scriptural inerrancy….” The faith in the
absolute literalism of the scripture makes fundamentalism a concept that is in
direct conflict with liberalism and modernism. The conflict finds its most
potent expression in the rejection of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution. An
early high-profile battle on the subject was fought in 1925 with the Scopes
Trial, where William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow faced off against each
other in the right of a schoolteacher in Tennessee to teach evolution in
state-funded schools.
Over
the years, the meaning of fundamentalism has been broadened and made more
elastic to encompass other religious faiths. According to Oxford Dictionaries
on the web, fundamentalism is defined as “A form of religion, especially Islam
or Protestant Christianity that upholds belief in the strict, literal
interpretation of the scripture.” It traces the origin of modern Christian
fundamentalism to the American millenarian sects of the 19th century. One can
reasonably argue, however, that the Catholic Church was practicing an earlier
version of fundamentalism when it banned the teaching of the heliocentric
theory of Copernicus (1473-1543), burned Giordino Bruno at the stake for heresy
(1600) and forced Galileo Galilei (in 1633) to recant his advocacy of the
Copernican theory.
Islamic
fundamentalism, in the words of Oxford Dictionaries, “appeared in the 18th and
19th centuries as a reaction to the disintegration of the Islamic political and
economic power, asserting that Islam is central to both state and society and
advocating strict adherence to the Koran and to Islamic law (sharia).” It has
become increasingly virulent in recent decades, fostering the dream of
re-establishing the Caliphate over the Ummah (Islamic Nation), in response to
economic stagnation and explosive population growth over a vast region of the
world blighted by autocratic rulers, failed states and civil wars.
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In
recent times, fundamentalism has become nearly synonymous with blind faith and
extremism. In this expanded view, its myriad manifestations cut across
virtually all religions and beliefs. Let me make my point with a few examples.
Jewish
fundamentalism exacerbates the challenge of finding a solution to the so-called
Palestinian Problem. The fundamentalists in this context refer to the Old
Testament to claim all of a vaguely defined Eretz Israel, including Judea and
Samaria (the Biblical names for the “Occupied West Bank”), as the divinely
ordained Promised Land of the Jewish people. They also stress the Genesis story
of Abraham’s purchase of land in Hebron for “four hundred shekels” to bury his
wife. The Palestinian counterparts to them are people who believe literally in
the journey of Muhammad on a celestial animal (al Buraq) on a single night from
Mecca to Jerusalem and back. The place which he visited in Jerusalem, now the
site of the Al Aqsa mosque, is also precisely the location of Temple Mount –
the holiest site in Judaism.
Islamic
fundamentalism seems not quite content with the conservative Wahhabi brand of
Islam and strict application of Sharia law in Saudi Arabia. It has spawned
numerous extremist movements: al Qaeda and its offshoots (in Yemen and
Algeria); the Taliban (in Afghanistan and Pakistan); and most recently the
Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL). This branch of fanaticism also
spawns murderous lone-wolf defenders of the faith who are bent on exterminating
mocking infidels and apostates, such as the Dutch filmmaker (Theo van Gogh) who
criticized Islam, the Danish cartoonist (Kurt Westergaard) of Muhammad’s face, the
journalists of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and a mentally
unstable Afghan woman in Kabul for allegedly burning pages of the Koran.
Hinduism
suffers from this scourge too. While the word fundamentalism cannot apply
strictly to a religion without a scripture, it can be applied loosely to the
toxic brew of blind faith in Hindu epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata) and
semi-sacred texts (Puranas and Manu-Smriti, for example) with intolerance for
proselytizing religions (Islam and Christianity) imported in the main by
foreign rulers. A notable recent example of Hindu fundamentalism was the Ram
Janmabhoomi movement, which resulted in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid
in Ayodhya. Its aftermath reverberated for years – from the Bombay blasts of
1993 to the Gujarat riots of 2002 – with significant loss of lives.
Finally, and in a less murderous but quite impactful way, fundamentalism is playing out in the US courts. Its adherents, citing the scripture and their right to the free practice of their religious beliefs, are trying to circumvent anti-discrimination laws in the areas of access to abortion and same-sex marriage. Hobby Lobby won a close Supreme Court decision last year that exempts it from mandatory contraception coverage of its workers in Obamacare. And Mike Pence of India recently signed into law a measure that would, in theory, permit businesses not to serve gay and lesbian customers if that lifestyle is anathema to their owners’ religious belief.
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Fundamentalism
becomes a serious problem for society in at least two ways: One, when its adherents
buck modernity by not accepting scientifically well-established facts such as
Evolution or the Origin of Life; and Two, when its adherents try to impose
their will on others by force or through legal means. In an odd and
contradictory way, social liberalism makes space for fundamentalism to have a
preacher’s platform from where it may end up undercutting the liberal order
itself.
[AMITABHA BAGCHI]
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