Reflections on religious nationalism, conflict and schooling in developing democracies: India and Israel in comparative perspective

This article explores the relationship between the propagation of religious nationalist citizenship discourses in classrooms and inter‐religious conflict in the context of two developing democracies, India and Israel. The author concludes that students schooled in religious nationalist ideology in developing nations are at greater risk of accepting exclusionary citizenship discourses without adequate critical analyses of their implications due to poor nations' tendencies toward teacher‐centred and textbook‐based instruction that neglects the development of critical thinking faculties. The acceptance of these ideologies appears to be correlated with an increase in inter‐religious conflict, social destabilization and the subversion of democracy. The corruption of democratic ideals by religiously motivated citizenship discourses has however been partially offset by the power of the vote and other structures inherent in democracy.