Religious Intergroup Identification as a Factor in Collective Guilt Acceptance

Abstract

In the Indian context, the Constitution has officially recognized the right to religious freedom as a fundamental right. Despite the constitutional commitment to secularism in India, the nation has consistently experienced tensions and conflicts between its two dominant religious communities, namely Hindus and Muslims. According to Doosje et al. (1998), there is a suggestion that individuals might experience feelings of guilt on behalf of their group when the behaviours of other members within the same group contradict the established norms or values of the group. Citizens of any country or social group, therefore, who have a history of oppression, exploitation, or unfairness toward other groups, may experience collective guilt. Consequently, this research study (N= 120, Mage = 32 years, SD = 12.46) focuses on understanding the extent to which religious intergroup identification as a factor in collective guilt acceptance.We first presented respondents a scenario of anticipated intergroup conflict related to mob lynching, which was used to elicit acceptance of collective guilt among persons belonging to majority-minority religious groups then we measured their religious identifications and collective guilt acceptance. Stratified random sample method was used for selecting participants from Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad city of Gujarat, India. Results revealed that majority religious group showed in-group religious favouritism and out-group religious derogation with regards to collective guilt acceptance whereas minority religious group did not showed in-group religious favouritism but exhibited out-group religious derogation with regards to collective guilt acceptance. Both communities exhibited equal level of collective guilt acceptance elicited from a scenario of anticipated intergroup conflict related to mob lynching. The findings are then addressed in light of the existing body of scholarly work, and the article comes to a close by offering some thoughts on the directions that majority-minority research should go in the future.