During the past decades material prosperity along with cultural and spiritual renaissance has transformed our societal structure. There has been an inevitable transition that is infused with global nature of change which has brought forth new ideals shape by modernity. The transition is not an isolated phenomenon but a universal one, nor it is confined to the particular period, through out the history of man kind, societies have witnessed a series of transformation be it drastic or gradual, both from within an without. As Max Weber would opine “traditional societies had within them the seed of modernity.”
Globalization has been an important social phenomenon in the contemporary world order. The world has become a single social system, as a result of growing ties of interdependences, which now virtually effects everyone. The global system is not just an environment within which particular societies develop and change. The social, political and economic connections, which trancends borders between communities and countries decisively, conditions the fate of those living within each one of them.
Globalization which came in the wake of what is often referred to as the demise of socialism in 1980s is a misleading concept, since what is describe as globalization has been happening for 500 years. Rather what is new is that we are entering into an “age of transition” in which the modern world system is in structural crisis, and has entered into a period of chaotic behavior, which will cause a systemic bifurcation and a transition to a new structure, whose nature is yet undetermined, and, in principle, impossible to predetermine, but one that will be open to human intervention and creativity.
This transitional wave which is infused with such nature of change has brought forth a transformation in overall structure of our society be it social, cultural, political or economy. We are no longer immune to such a phenomenonal change nor remain to be isolated. Be it planned or unplanned we are ignited and merge with the world order, in such an ‘age of transition’, we not only have the brighter prospect of change but also become inevitably alienated from the custom and habits that is imposed from the wider society. So much we have achieved and prosper, an era where we have become a being that has every needs and desires that can be fulfill, but such structural expansion and the growth of elements within itself, has not only taken our society into a new ideals but even into a chaotic organism where reality is often hard to except and the quest for social order is often blurred. The sporadic emergence of conflicts and tension within our society not only do generate fear but often become a common phenomenon that we might overlook the intensity of the crisis. Such social disorder as Karl Marx will put as inherent and inevitable in modern contemporary society, but we simply do not remain a silent spectator but intervene to develop reforms and interpret.
Religion and intellectual role would become a dominant element in reforming such a society like ours. Religion as define by Emile Durkheim is a “unified set of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unit into a single moral community called a church and all those who adhere to them”, the idea of ‘moral community’ whether identified as a church or not is an eminently collective thing. The concept of religion have numerous terms , not only thus it relate to a moral community but even to anything which a society adhere to, as Karl Marx would regard, ‘religion as total submission of the masses to the few’. Or that of August Comte, would define “religion not in the worship of God or God’s but positivism itself”. Thus religion has a very broad concept which can be used to define any given society .
The Moral Community or the church which our society adheres to, and Christianity as such, not only does it promotes moral values but also reinforces cohesion and solidarity within the structural religious diversity and pluralistic religious demands. Religion has always played a significant role in shaping and transforming the Naga society, from stagnant Practices, beliefs and rituals to a modern progressive society. But religion as such, can also become a force that binds and limits humanity itself when every human action is determined by it, in such case, religion not only will reinforces cohesion but could be a weapon which can be dangerous for a society. In this context, maintaining a sustainable orderly relationship between religion and the social life could be become a great challenge to our modern society, and in such crisis the role of intellectual can become a preeminent force which will shape our society towards development. The concept is not a criticism of the existing religious roles and the intellectual’s, par se, but rather towards how we can reshape our social structure.
Religion and society are one and the same, as Durkheim puts it Religion was the way society express itself in the form of nonmaterial social fact or more generally of the collective conscience.
Religion in our society has often been too confined within the institution such as religious studies programs or accepted without critical inquiry. With this statement there is a need to re-examine how religion can shape or reformed the functioning of our society and how students and single individuals can become aware of the constructive and critical appraisals of religion’s historic and contemporary significance and in particular, its impact on the social life. Regardless of the spiritual values that has been imparted, and the beliefs which sets apart the boundary of reasoning and acceptance, Empirical reasoning can renewed the intellectual inquiry and academic freedom to examine how religion work . In such context religion can foster the common goal and quench the thirst of an orderly society.
The society, envisioned, is not just a mere illusion nor an imaginations of an arm chair scholar, but a result of an empirical and scientific inquiry.
How can such society be achieved in this diverse democracy and the global society? It is not a mere act of a single individual but a ‘collective conscience’, nor confined with a single ‘moral community’ or a religious institution but the general masses which will lead into a social transformation. The masses are the students, youths, scholars, associations, institutions via; social, political, economic, cultural, and various disciplines, which will be shaped by the intellectual reasoning and established a significant understanding relationship between the various elements of our social organism that will emerge from within the roots of religion and set the disciplinary standards and procedures in the search for truth.
Thepfusalie Theunuo
Email: thepfusalietheunuo@ymail.com
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