IMPACT OF SOCIAL CULTURAL FACTORS ON THE HARMONY AMONG THE DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES IN DISTRICT TOBA TEK SINGH

Abstract

Harmony across religions expresses the idea of live and let live. In a world where political and economic unrest is on the rise, peaceful coexistence among followers of many theological perspectives may prove to be the way forward for peace and prosperity. Interfaith cooperation and religious diversity must be strengthened for Pakistan to prosper and grow.  This study aims was to analysed the social and psychological factors that are supporting peaceful coexistence among four varied communities i.e., Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians in the district of Toba Tek Singh in order to support interfaith harmony. Based on their willingness to take the survey, a sample of 120 respondents from these communities was selected. An effective interview schedule was used to acquire the data. The collected data was analyzed with the help of SPSS. For further inferential statistics (chi-square and gamma test) was used.   In this study the relationship between gender together with age of respondents and harmony among the communities has been examined using Chi-square and Gamma tests.    The value of Chi-square is 6.29 and 11.006 for gender and age respectively, which is significant at alpha value of .05%, it indicates that there is a significant relationship between the gender together with age of the respondents and harmony among the communities. The Gamma value which is 0.52 and 0.403 respectively for gender and age factor also supports the positive relationship between the gender along with age of the respondents and harmony among the communities. Older and female respondents are likely more liberal and have a positive attitude towards the communities that create harmony among the members of the communities.