Abstract
Abstract
Much has been written about the socio-cultural functions of religion. It is
equally important to discuss the role and impact of religion and ethics on development
and promoting reform in civil society. In today's South Asian context it is necessary to
analyse religion both as a tradition and a representation of modernity. Otherwise it is
difficult to clearly understand not only the relationship of domination-subordination,
together with processes of exclusions and violence prevalent in the sub-continent but
also the emerging perspectives, lineages and languages of sociology in general and
religion in particular. An attempt is made in this paper to examine the relationship
and to evaluate the processes in the evolving discourse of sociology. It also analyses the
'moral' as embedded in religion and as an autonomous category emerging with
secularisation. The subtleties of rights and righteousness in the method and
metamorphosis of development are also dealt with in this paper.