What Am I Doing?

I'll be asking myself that question a lot. Here's what I plan to be doing, sound bite version. the ancient city of Varanasi is a good place to see a piece of modern India that's still deeply in touch with its traditional roots and to observe how that connection is expressed in public space. In the United States religious observances take place almost entirely indoors, and rarely manifest themselves in parades and festivals. Those are reserved for other kinds of celebrations, often patriotic ones. Pilgrimages are, for the most part, unheard of. We also have strict rules about the collusion of state and religion in public space, which animates, at the very least, what some religious folks would call a hostility to religion. I wouldn't go that far, but official indifference toward religion may be a more powerful way of depleting its force over the long run and certainly keeps the peace better.

As a political matter, religion is often publicly discussed, but the rites that embody it are private in the sense of lacking any official character. U.S. national rites, which often borrow religious trappings, are another thing altogether. And therein lies the interest. What a culture does in public it is officially interested in and approves of. National religion, or patriotism, is welcome in the public space of the U.S.; sectarian or confessional religion is not. South Asia and southeast Asia (as my focus) are quite different. To be continued........