Conceptions of national identity and interreligious contact avoidance in differing domains: A multigroup analysis of majority and minority religious groups in India

Abstract

The current research examined how inclusive versus exclusive conceptions of national identity were associated with interreligious contact avoidance across relatively public (neighbours) versus private (marriage) domains among majority and minority religious groups. Using data from a large national sample (N ~ 30,000) of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists in the rarely studied context of India, we found that an inclusive and tolerant conception of Indian national identity was strongly endorsed among all groups, while an exclusive Hindu national identity was more strongly endorsed by the Hindu majority than religious minorities. Interreligious contact avoidance was consistently higher among all groups in the context of marriage than neighbours. Multigroup path analysis revealed that an inclusive national identity was associated with less interreligious avoidance as neighbours among majority and minority groups (except Buddhists), but it was unrelated to interreligious avoidance in the domain of marriage among all (except Sikhs). By contrast, an exclusive national identity was associated with more contact avoidance both as neighbours and through marriage among majority and minority religious groups (except Muslims). Collectively, these findings reveal that inclusive versus exclusive conceptions of national identity can be differentially associated with distinct forms of contact avoidance among majority and minority groups.