Religion, Power, and Society in Suriname and Guyana

Hindu, Muslim, and Christian Relations

R. Kirtie Algoe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781032010205
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000588415
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book surveys the development of the religious landscape in Suriname and Guyana, focusing on the interaction between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians and responses to Christian dominance. It reflects on how and why these religiously diverse Caribbean societies are characterized by relative harmony, whereas interreligious relationships in other parts of the world have been marked by extreme conflict and violence. The chapters explore ideological and institutional dimensions, including the role of government policies, religious demography, religious leadership, and private religious institutions. The author takes a critical stance towards a negative approach to power struggles and offers a perspective that does not necessarily consider religious diversity a hindrance for religious harmony. Making valuable data accessible to scholars in the English language, this volume provides a framework for the study of interreligious relations and for understanding the religious worlds of the Caribbean.

1Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/​9781003179269-1

In today’s world, Christians are the largest religious group (32%), followed by Muslims (23%) and Hindus (15%) (Pew Research Center, 2012). The demographic majority of Christians is an important factor that interacted with Christian dominance in many regions during western colonialism. Their dominance was expressed clearly in the compulsion and enforcement of the practice of Christianity on other religious groups. As Sankatsing (2007, pp. 2–3) states: ‘Western Christianity was to be imposed at all costs on all latitudes preferably by persuasion and conversion, but if so required with the use of genocidal force’.

The Caribbean is among the regions with Christian dominance during western colonialism. However, from a religious demographic viewpoint it is a distinctive part in the world. Prior to Christian dominance, the Caribbean, as opposed to various regions, was not inhabited by Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. This region was populated only by indigenous religious groups before the arrival of colonizers in the 15th century (Lampe, 2001). Other regions, like Asia were already populated by Hindus (Singh, 2004); the Middle East and parts of Africa by Muslims, and Europe by Christians (Kaba, 2005; Lawler, 2011).

This study concentrates on responses by Hindus and Muslims to Christian dominance in Suriname and Guyana, two religiously diverse societies in the Caribbean. This region is characterized by relatively harmonious responses, which is remarkable as in various parts of the world extreme violence between Christian and non-Christian religions is a common phenomenon. In many regions, Christians, Hindus, and/or Muslims were involved in wars during conflicts with dominant groups (Reychler, 1997). In former Yugoslavia, a European country, for instance, responses by Bosnian Muslims to the Serbian Christian dominance encouraged a war with a religious dimension in the early 1990s (Kalyvas & Sambanis, 2005). Kashmir (Asia) had bloodbaths during clashes between Muslim groups and the dominant Hindu government in the 1990s (Reychler, 1997). Responses to religious dominance in the Caribbean did not involve such extreme violence. Barriteau (2006, p. 12) even describes this region as a ‘zone of peace’ in the confrontational world. While peace may be an overrated classification, as the Caribbean has its challenges with cultural diversity, it is a distinct region in terms of absence of religious wars and a relative harmony between religious groups. Addressing this particular Caribbean experience is worthwhile considering the increasing debates on the negative influence of religious groups on social stability in the world (Canetti, Hobfoll, Pedahzur, & Zaidise, 2010). These debates do not entirely apply to the relative positive experiences of Caribbean societies with religion.

The term responses is not new; it has been used before to refer to the ways subaltern groups cope with or free themselves from the rule of others (see for instance Hedlund, 2008; Kosambi, 1992; Lindenfeld, 2005). However, a conceptualization of responses was not identified. The interest in such a conceptualization came after the defense of the author’s master thesis on the institutional development of Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago in 2011 (Algoe, 2011). This thesis was criticized for dealing with responses of Hindus and Muslims to Christian dominance, but that these were not conceptualized.

Responses are defined as strategies of subordinate religious groups to reduce the dominance of religious groups by using ideologies and institutions. Responses, therefore, have an ideological and institutional dimension. The ideological dimension focuses on values and beliefs of subordinate groups, while the institutional dimension emphasizes practices and strategies of these groups through institutions. In the next chapter both dimensions will be worked out.

The main research objective is to develop a conceptual framework on interreligious relations for Caribbean societies. Such a framework is necessary for two reasons. First, standard approaches with a sociopsychological and theological nature cannot adequately explain the relative harmonious interreligious relations in Caribbean societies (Table 1.1). Mainstream sociopsychological theories, like the Social Identity and Social Identity Development theories, focus on the tendency of people to perceive their own group as more positive than others (Brown, 2000) and emphasize the negative aspects of relations between groups.¹ These theories underline perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes of individuals toward the own and other group (Pettigrew, 1998; Verkuyten & Thijs, 2009). The theory of acculturation, which is in the field of cross-cultural psychology, provides relevant insight in relations between cultural groups (Table 1.1). This theory addresses the changes emerging from intercultural contact (Oudenhoven & Ward, 2012). Acculturation classically refers to ‘those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups’ (Redfield, Linton, and Herscovits, 1936 cited in Berry, 1997, p. 7). This theory is widely used to study the impact of large scale migration in western societies (Oudenhoven & Ward, 2012). In the view of acculturation, intercultural contact between immigrants and the hosts can result into separation, assimilation, marginalization, and integration. The outcome of this contact is not a linear process; it is influenced by conditions and backgrounds of involved cultural groups (Berry, 1997). A limitation of the acculturation theory, however, is the lack of attention to global social changes such as demographic trends and transnational relations (Oudenhoven & Ward, 2012). An important global social change is the rise of Evangelicalism (Pew Research Center, 2014). Such changes hardly play a role in the debates of acculturation when migration is not involved. However, the rise of Evangelicalism may have implications for interreligious relations.

Table 1.1 Focus and Limitations Theories on Interreligious Relations

Academic Discipline	Theory	Focus	Limitations
Social psychology	Social identity theory	Perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes of individuals toward the own and other group	Tendency to perceive own group as more positive than others
	Social identity development theory
Cross-cultural psychology	Theory of acculturation	Intercultural contact and implications for original cultural patterns due to migration	No attention for global social changes such as rise of Evangelicalism
Theology	Religious pluralism	Influence and need of common religious values to encourage religious harmony	Implicit homogeneity ideal
	Interreligious dialogue
	Exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism	Own religious superiority is a basis to judge other religions	Inadequate to understand equality and solidarity between religious groups

There are ‘theological’ theories which implicitly argue that religious homogeneity is needed for religious harmony such as the interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. Both interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism focus on how common² religious values such as the beliefs in one God encourage religious harmony (Hospital, 2007; Karuvelil, 2012; Porterfield, 2013). But there are limited explanations for peaceful interreligious relations without shared religious beliefs (Table 1.1).

To develop a conceptual framework for interreligious relations in Caribbean societies, a perspective is needed that does not necessarily consider religious diversity a hindrance for religious harmony. To this end, the concept of concerted diversity (Sankatsing, 2007) is used. This is the key approach that enables insight in the potential of religious groups to build harmonious relationships with each other.

The theoretical relevance of this study is that it proposes a typology of interreligious relations that differs from the standard distinction between exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism³ (Cheetham, Pratt, & Thomas, 2013). These three forms take the own religious superiority as a basis to judge others (Karuvelil, 2012) which limits to understand the possible equality and solidarity between religious groups (Table 1.1). In our proposed typology, such an understanding is enabled by the concept of concerted diversity. The argument is that interreligious relations consist of two forms: concerted diversity and religious dominance. Concerted diversity allows a deeper understanding of the ability of religious groups to build harmonious relationships with each other. It involves the expression of equality and solidarity ideals and related practices as well as conflict solving abilities. Concerted diversity refers to the ways social groups are harmonizing their differences while respecting each other’s dignity through dialogue and negotiated compromises for the time being (Sankatsing, 2016). Religious dominance, on the contrary, conceptualizes the way religious groups express their superiority over others. Noteworthy is that hegemony, counterhegemony, and concerted diversity have not been combined before in studies on interreligious relations (see for instance Abu-Nimer, 2001; Ahlin et al., 2012; Alabi, 2002; Baines & Quartly, 2013; Bräuchler, 2007; R. K. Brown & Brown, 2011; Lancee & Dronkers, 2011; Phalet, Baysu, & Verkuyten, 2010; Smith, 2007; Sterchele, 2007). The combination of these three concepts may add to theoretical approaches of interreligious relati...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theoretical Framework
• 3 Methodology
• 4 Evolution of Christian Dominance in Suriname and Guyana
• 5 ‘Responses’ and Interreligious Relations in Suriname and Guyana
• 6 General Conclusions
• Appendices
• References
• Index