Poster #170 - Indian=Hindu? The Development of Nationalist Attitudes among Hindu and Muslim Children in India

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Recently, there has been a rise in political movements that equate nationality with individuals of a certain ethnicity or religion (e.g., Americans are White, Indians are Hindu). Adults appear to internalize exclusionary nationalistic rhetoric; Americans of different races associate being White with being American (Devos & Banaji, 2005). Critically, such associations may lead minorities to de-identify either with their group or with the nation, resulting in negative psychological outcomes (Sidanuis, Feshback, Levin, & Pratto, 1997). Internalizing exclusionary nationalist associations may also lead individuals to support regressive social policies (Verkuyten, 2009), increasing communal conflict. Given this historical moment, it is crucial to understand how children raised in settings characterized by ethnic or religious nationalism––particularly minorities who fall outside of such exclusionary concepts––develop attitudes about their own and others’ nationality.

We explored how majority Hindu and minority Muslim children in Gujarat, India––a region marked by religious nationalist tension¬¬––develop attitudes regarding their national and religious identity. 161 children (80 Hindu, 81 Muslim) completed a survey and an implicit association test (IAT). Participants were drawn from a younger (9-12 years, M=10.71) and older (12-16 years, M=14.06) age group. We measured children’s intergroup attitudes, religious nationalist associations, beliefs about what it means to be a “True Indian,” and how these related to their perspectives regarding the rights and treatment of majority and minority groups within their society.

Both Hindu and Muslim children showed strong preferences for members of their own religion (p<0.001), with preferences subsiding among older children (p<0.001). Consistent with the idea that an Indian=Hindu association is present within local society, Hindu children showed a strong Indian=Hindu association on both explicit (p<0.001), and implicit (p<0.001) measures, with explicit but not implicit associations decreasing with age. Hindu children also identified strongly both with their religious group and their nationality, which is sensible because an Indian=Hindu association might allow Hindu children’s national and religious identity to reinforce one another. Interestingly, Muslim children also exhibited a strong national and religious identity, and showed no tendency to associate being Indian with being Hindu on explicit or implicit measures, suggesting resilience to religious nationalist rhetoric. Finally, both children’s intergroup attitudes and explicit Indian=Hindu associations predicted their beliefs regarding what it means to be a “True Indian” (e.g., being patriotic), their support for social policies (e.g., whether leaders in the Indian government should be Hindu or Muslim), and organizations promoting a Hindu, Muslim, or secular agenda (ps<0.05).

Together, our findings suggest that by early in elementary school, children raised in societies marked by religious nationalism may internalize exclusionary nationalist associations, with consequences for their concepts of nationality and beliefs about how different citizens in their country should be treated. While our findings highlight the negative consequences of nationalist political regimes, the data from our Muslim participants––who did not internalize an Indian=Hindu association and identified strongly with their nationality and religion––provide evidence of resilience against nationalist rhetoric. Future work is need to determine how children come to develop religious nationalist associations.

Authors

• Monica E. Ellwood-Lowe, University of California, Berkeley
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Berner, The Wright Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yarrow Dunham, Yale
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mahesh Srinivasan, UC Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author