The Harbingers of Change: Nodal Articulations and Decomposition of Labor, Religion and Politics

Bahar Tabakoglu, New York University

The recent rise of religious politics in Turkey, with its changing social configurations and fabrics at the level of the political, the social and the economic, has become a crucial analytical focus for understanding political Islam in its particular context. In a similar fashion, the increasing trend of political Hinduism/Hindu nationalism in India has become a central subject matter with its dynamics at the same levels. This paper will focus on religious-nationalist affiliated labor unions in Turkey and India—i.e. labor wings of political Islam and political Hinduism, respectively—considering them as institutional representatives of some segments of the working classes which have been key integrative elements of religious politics in both countries. Further, the paper will analyze the historical and contemporary patterns and socio-political-economic spheres undergirding the formation and the rise of religious politics in both countries through a critical engagement with the perspective of their class components. Data (interviews and archival material) collected during fieldwork in both countries will constitute the units of analyses in this paper.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 238. Performing Religious Nationalism