Tomalin, E. orcid.org/0000-0001-7722-1192, Dyer, C. and Choksi, A. (2024) The doublespeak of ‘leave no one behind’: Implications for religious inequality in Hindu and Muslim pastoralist communities in India. World Development, 174. 106436. ISSN 0305-750X
Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledged to ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB). This article suggests that LNOB can be a form of ‘doublespeak’, susceptible to being used to mask ideologies and policies that worsen social, political and religious divisions. Despite stated commitments to LNOB, both Agenda 2030 and the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of India adhere to narrow models of development that fail to address and exacerbate the growing problem of religious and other inequalities. This article argues for reclaiming LNOB’s radical potential by conceptualising it as an empty signifier that takes on meaning through the hegemonic struggle to articulate what ‘left behind’ means. It develops this argument through a case study of Hindu Nationalist developmental normativity and two mobile pastoralist communities in Gujarat: Hindu Rabaris and Sufi Muslim Fakirani Jats. The empirical data show that in Gujarat’s marketised neo-liberal land regime, mobile pastoralism as a livelihood is increasingly stressed and liable to be constructed as ‘left behind’. Simultaneously, the Hindu and Sufi religious practices that shaped pastoralists’ relationships with land and animals are being transformed and, framed by the BJP government’s promotion of a Hindu nationalist religious identity, are shifting towards adoption of communal Hindu and Muslim identities that exacerbate social and religious inequalities, with particular effects on women. The paper concludes that LNOB has potential to tackle religious and other inequalities and generate a more radical and democratic politics of development if the range of demands that are met by this ‘empty signifier’ is broadened to challenge the hegemonic representations that dominate, and religion’s centrality in this struggle is recognised.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of an article published in World Development. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Pastoralism; Religious inequality; Hindutva; Leave no-one behind; India |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > Theology and Religious Studies (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number British Academy SDP2\100053 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2023 16:07 |
Last Modified: | 02 Nov 2023 16:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106436 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204851 |
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