Religion, concerned with the existence of a transcendental force or the realm of the supernatural, has remained an integral part of social life from time immemorial. With the onset of ‘modernity’ and the ‘Age of Reason’, the rationalists believed that in due course of time, religion would lose its authority in shaping the contours of the individual as well as collective life. However, the fact is that religion not only has remained one of the most robust social institutions of society but has also been flourishing in its new avatars. Drawing upon historical and contemporary sources, this article argues that while science and rationality have the potential to liberate mankind from various natural and social constraints, it is religion (non-rational) that brings order and meaning in social life. Rational and non-rational, if understood properly, do not share an antagonistic but a relation of complementarity. Irrationality injects fissiparousness into society, but non-rationality supports the cohesion of society.
ArrowK. (1974). The limits of organisation. W. W. Norton and Company.
2.
BaudrillardJ. (1983). In the shadow of silent majorities … or the end of the social and other essays. Semeotext (e), Inc.
3.
BaumanZ. (2007). Liquid times: Living in an age of uncertainty. Polity Press.
4.
BellD. (1980). The return of the sacred? The argument on the future of religion. InSociological journeys: Essays 1960–1980. Heinemann.
5.
BellD. (1996). The cultural contradictions of capitalism. Basic Books.
6.
BellahR. N. (1973). Emile Durkheim: On morality and society. University of Chicago Press.
7.
BergerP. (1967). The sacred canopy: Elements of a sociological theory of religion. Anchor Books.
8.
BeteilleA. (2002). Sociology: Essays on approach and method. Oxford University Press.
9.
CasanovaJ. (2001). Civil society and religion: Retrospective reflections on Catholicism and prospective reflections on Islam. Social Research, 68(4), 1041–1080.
10.
ChaurasiaM., & BanerjeeP. (2024, September29). ‘As Gaya Pind Dan goes online, tech vs tradition fight unfolds’. The Sunday Times of India.
11.
DawsonL. L. (1998). The cultural significance of new religious movements and globalisation: A theoretical prolegomenon. Journal of Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 580–595.
12.
DurkheimE.1973 (1925). The moral education. Free Press.
13.
DurkheimE.1995 (1912). The elementary forms of religious life. The Free Press.
14.
EdgertonF. (1942). Dominant ideas in the formation of Indian culture. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 62, 151–156.
15.
EliadeM. (1957). The sacred and the profane: The nature of religion. Brace and World.
Evans-PritchardE. E. (1956). Nuer religion. Clarendon Press.
18.
FisherM. (1980). Iran: From religious dispute to revolution. Wisconsin University Press.
19.
FoucaultM. (1980). Power/knowledge. Selected interviews and other writings. 1972–1977. Pantheon Books.
20.
FreudS. (1961). The future of an illusion. W. W. Norton and Company.
21.
FrommE. H. (1994). Escape from freedom. Henry Holt and Company.
22.
GandhiM. K. (1955). Truth is God. Navajivan Press.
23.
GandhiM. K. (1962). Village swaraj. Navajivan Press.
24.
Giddens A. (1972). Emile durkheim: Selected writings. Cambridge University Press.
25.
HalbfassW.2017 (1990). India and Europe: An essay in philosophical understanding. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
26.
HansenT. B. (1999). The saffron wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India. Princeton University Press.
27.
HegelG. W. F. (1952). Hegel’s philosophy of rights. Oxford University Press.
28.
HiriyannaM. (1949). The essentials of Indian philosophy. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
29.
HorkheimerM., & AdornoT. W. (1972). Dialectic of enlightenment. Herder and Herder.
30.
KuhnT. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
31.
MalinowskiB. (1962). The foundations of faith and morals. InSex, culture and myth. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
32.
MarcuseH. (1964). One dimensional man. Beacon Press.
33.
MarxK., & EngelsF. (1932). The German ideology. The Marx–Engels Institute.
34.
ParasharK. (2021, January21). ‘Bengaluru: Suicide touched 11-year high in 2020: Expert blames COVID’. The Times of India.
35.
PerretR. W.2000. Theory of value. Vol. 5: Indian Philosophy. Garland Publishing Inc.
36.
PickeringW. S. F.1984. Durkheim’s sociology of religion. James Clarke & Company Ltd.
37.
RadhakrishnanS. (2014). Hindu view of life. Element.
38.
SchutzA. (1962). Collected papers 1. The problem of social reality. Martinus Nijhoff.
39.
SeabrightP. (2024). The divine economy: How religions compete for wealth, power and people. Princeton University Press.
40.
ShilsE. (1997). The virtue of civility: Selected essays on liberalism, tradition and civil society. Liberty Fund, Inc.
41.
SingerM.2023 (1972). When a great tradition modernizes: An anthropological approach to Indian civilization. Rawat Publications.
42.
SrinivasM. N. (1952). Religion and society among the Coorgs of South India. Clarendon Press.
43.
TambiahS. J. (1990). Magic, science, religion and the scope of rationality. Cambridge University Press.
44.
TocquevilleA.2003 (1835). Democracy in America. Penguin Books.
45.
TylorE. (1871). Primitive culture. Murray.
46.
UpadhyayD. (1969). Integral humanism. RSS.
47.
WarnerW. L. (1959). The family of God: A symbolic study of Christian life in America. Greenwood Press Publishers.
48.
WarrierM. (2003). Processes of secularization in contemporary India: Guru faith in the Mata Amritanandamayi mission. Modern Asian Studies, 37(1), 213–253.
49.
WeberM. (1946). Politics as a vocation. In GerthH. H. & MillsC. W. (Eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. Oxford University Press.
50.
WeberM. (1949). The methodology of social sciences. The Free Press of Glencoe.
51.
WeberM. (1963). The sociology of religion. Beacon Press.
52.
WeberM.2011 (1904). The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Oxford University Press.
53.
WilsonB.2016 (1966). Religion in a secular society. Oxford University Press.
54.
YingerJ. M. (1970). The scientific study of religion. The MacMillan Company.
