Online Registration

ISO 9001:2015

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, MODERN MANAGEMENT, APPLIED SCIENCE & SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJEMMASSS) [ Vol. 8 | No. 3 (II) | July-September, 2026 ]

Religion as a Force of Social Cohesion and Contestation in Contemporary West Bengal: Evidence from a Household Survey

Ananya Ganguly & Dr. Arun Kumar

Religion remains deeply embedded in the social and political life of India despite processes of modernization, urbanization and secularization. This article examines the simultaneous integrative and disintegrative roles of religion in contemporary West Bengal, with particular attention to attitudes, religious practices, social welfare, interpersonal solidarity, conflict, political neutrality and strategies for reducing religious intolerance. The analysis is based on an observational household survey of 450 heads or eldest adult members drawn from rural and urban locations in Darjeeling, Howrah and South 24 Parganas. A semi-structured interview schedule and a Likert-type attitude scale were used, and the original study applied descriptive statistics and chi-square tests to examine associations between selected social characteristics and religious perceptions. The results reveal a strongly pro-religious orientation: 65.55% of respondents were classified as favourable or highly favourable towards religion. Religious practice was also widespread, with 90.67% reporting daily prayer. At the same time, respondents distinguished between religion's constructive social potential and its politicized or competitive forms. A large majority believed that religion promotes human love (87.34%) and contributes to life satisfaction (77.56%), yet 95.11% perceived contemporary religious competition as a source of tension. Reform-oriented responses were equally strong: 93.11% supported confining religious practice to the personal domain as a means of reducing conflict, while 95.56% supported equal governmental distance from all religions. Religious education and harmonious inter-religious activities were the most frequently preferred strategies for preventing intolerance. The findings suggest that religion in West Bengal is neither simply declining nor uniformly conflict-producing; rather, it operates as an ambivalent social institution whose effects depend on leadership, institutional competition, social context and the relationship between religion and political power.

  1. Ahuja, R. (1999). Society in India. Rawat Publications.
  2. Bellah, R. N. (1976). New religious consciousness and the crisis in modernity. In C. Y. Glock & R. N. Bellah (Eds.), The New Religious Consciousness.
  3. Broom, L. (1954). Sociology: A Text with Adapted Readings.
  4. Douglas, M. (1968). Purity and Danger. Praeger.
  5. Dube, S. C. (1994). Tradition and Development. Vikas Publishing House.
  6. Durkheim, E. (1954). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. George Allen & Unwin.
  7. Durkheim, E. (1965). The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Free Press.
  8. Firth, R. (1971). Elements of Social Organization. Tavistock Publications.
  9. Fromm, E. (1941). Escape from Freedom. Rinehart.
  10. Gandhi, M. K. (1980). In Search of the Supreme (Vol. II).
  11. Geertz, C. (1947). Religion as a cultural system. In R. Bocock & K. Thompson (Eds.), Religion and Ideology.
  12. Herberg, W. (1960). Protestant-Catholic-Jew (Rev. ed.). Anchor Books.
  13. Horton, P. B., & Hunt, C. L. (1968). Sociology (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
  14. Malinowski, B. (1948). Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays.
  15. Malinowski, B. (1954). Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays.
  16. Merton, R. K. (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure. Free Press.
  17. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952). Structure and Function in Primitive Society.
  18. Schneider, H. W. (1952). Religion in Twentieth Century America. Harvard University Press.
  19. Spiro, M. E. (1968). Religion: Problems of definition and explanation.
  20. Young, K. (1954). Handbook of Social Psychology.

DOI:

Article DOI:

DOI URL:

Download Full Paper:

Download