While I was in India I was disgusted with politicians perennially using religion/ community/ caste/ language etc to garner support and get elected to power. I was always under the impression that since US was a self-proclaimed Christian nation, religion wouldn’t be playing so much of a role in vote gathering. But now having lived in the US since the past 8 months and through a momentous election campaign which has featured several stalwarts I have come to realize that religion is indeed the swaying force of any election irrespective of any country.

When I go through the news reports about the upcoming election one thing becomes very obvious, the Church holds a great sway over the mindsets of people and can turn the balance in favour or disfavour of a potential president. I read these articles titled “McCain steps up efforts to woo religious voters” and yes the religious leaders are responding well too. Quoting from the article: “Phil Burress of the Ohio Christian Alliance, who met privately with Mr. McCain a week ago in Cincinnati, said evangelical leaders urged him to pick a social-conservative running mate and to talk more openly about issues they care about, especially abortion and gay marriage.”

It is interesting note these developments. I have come to a conclusion that people anywhere in the world, be it in poverty-ridden country like India or the super-rich nation of US, are essentially the same. Only their modes of operation vary. While Indians are emotional and create a huge drama, the westerners operate from their minds, calculating, speculating and planning the opponents defeat and their own victory.

In India though religion does play a vital role among the minorities, it is not so much among the majority Hindus. This is primarily the British and subsequently Indian politicians have successfully fragmented the majority religion based on their sub-cultures. For example a non-Brahmin would be less likely to vote for a Brahmin candidate and vice-versa. The next level of fragmentation is based on language. With over 30 major languages spoken across the country, there are enough voters for every lingual camp.