This talk addresses two issues that do not seem to receive enough attention in the discussion of secularism. The first is the question of the secular as rational. This question is raised especially by Max Weber’s work on Entzauberung. It relates to secular policies against magic or superstition, especially in communist states. The second issue is that of violence against religious minorities. The relation between minority and majority is crucial in all nation-states and secularism of the state seems an important factor in them. The lecture focuses on the comparison of secularism in India and China. In various ways, Asian intellectuals have sought to connect modern ideas about the location of religion in society and state with Asian traditions. In East Asia, this has led to various forms of repression of certain kinds of religion as superstitious impediments to progress. In South Asia, this is subsumed under a unifying impulse to create religious forms of nationalism. The imperative of modern nationalism is to nationalize religion. This leads to the understanding of some religions as belonging to the civilizational essence, while marginalizing other religions. The very existence of religious difference can be interpreted as a challenge to the unitary state and its developmental mission. Forms of secularism are essential in extending the protection of the state to religious minorities and to differences in beliefs and practices.
Lecturer's bio
Peter van der Veer is Director Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen as well as Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Utrecht University. In 2019 and 2020 he was the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago, where he gave the Annual Vivekananda Lecture. He is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including most recently, The Modern Spirit of Asia (Princeton), The Value of Comparison (Duke), The Handbook of Religion and the Asian City (Berkeley), the Secular in South, East, and South-East Asia (Palgrave), and Refugees and Religion (Bloomsbury).