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University of California, Berkley–Christ Church College, Kanpur
Joint Research Project
Religion-Politics Interface in U.P. |
The project entitled Religion Politics Interface was jointly undertaken by Prof. Pradeep Chhibber and Prof. Jasjeet S. Sekhon (both from the University of California, Berkley, USA) and Dr. A.K. Verma (Christ Church College, Kanpur). It was designed to study whether the voting behaviour, attitude, likings and evaluation of political leaders by the Hindus and Muslims were influenced by the religious appearances of their leaders. The project has two phases. Each phase has different sample size, sampling technique, and research design.
First Phase:
In the first phase, sampling was done through purposive and targeted sampling method. For this, three places - two urban (Lucknow and Aligarh) and one rural (Kanpur Dehat) – were sampled. The urban centres were significant for their Muslim presence whereas the rural area was not known for any significant Muslim presence. At each sampled place, it was decided to target the places of worship. For Hindus, mandirs (temples) were targeted; for Muslims, Masjids (mosques) were targeted.
A pilot study was first conducted to identify prominent mandirs and masjids in the sampled areas, and then our researchers were asked to interview the respondents coming out after offering puja in mandirs or namaz in masjids. For this study, at every sampled place, 10 mandirs and 10 masjids were identified. At each mandir, 40 Hindu respondents were interviewed; similarly, at each masjid, 40 Muslim respondents were interviewed. The sample size at each sampled place was 800 which meant that 400 Hindus returning from temples after puja and 400 Muslims returning from masjid after offering namaz were interviewed. Thus, in all, the study covered 2400 respondents at 30 mandirs and 30 masjids spread over the sampled areas in Uttar Pradesh.
The respondents were first divided into two categories - Hindus and Muslims. Then each category of respondents was further divided into three segments: one segment of respondents were shown photo of a leader without religious identification; second segment of respondents were shown photograph of the same person dressed as a Muslim, and the third segment of respondents were shown photograph of the same person dresses as a Hindu. Thus, the same person was shown in three guises: without religious identification, as a Muslim, and as a Hindu.
Respondents were first shown a photograph and then some questions were asked (Photographs of same person in three guises attached).
Two types of questionnaires were used; Set A and Set B (Questionnaires). In both, the questions were identical. But, set A was administered to those who were to be shown the photograph without religious identification; set B was administered to those who were to be shown photograph with religious identification.
While doing interview around mandir, we used two photographs; one without religious identification of the leader, and, another wherein the leader was identifies as a Hindu person. Set A of the questionnaire was administered to those who were shown normal photo (without religious identification); Set B of the questionnaire was administered to those who were shown the photograph of the leader in Hindu dress.
While doing interview around masjid, we used two photographs; one without religious identification of the leader, and, another wherein the leader was identifies as a Muslim person. Set A of the questionnaire was administered to those who were shown normal photo (without religious identification); Set B of the questionnaire was administered to those who were shown the photograph of the leader in Muslim dress.
The first phase was conducted during January – March 2010.
Phase II
The second phase of the project Religion-Politics Interface in U.P. takes a different trajectory. The sample size is much bigger - 6000 respondents. Though the sampled places remain the same, but the sampling methodology is very different.
At each sampled place i.e. Lucknow, Aligarh and Kanpur Dehat, 10 Muslim dominant polling Booths and 10 Hindu dominant polling booths were identified. Voters list of the sampled Polling Booths were procured and using the random sampling method, 100 respondents were sampled from each polling booth. Thus, 1000 Hindus were sampled from 10 Hindu dominant booths and 1000 Muslims were sampled from 10 Muslim dominant booths from Lucknow and Aligarh. For the rural Kanpur Dehat, locating enough Muslim dominant booths was a difficult task as in rural Kanpur Dehat, Hindus and Muslims are not that distinctly segregated; most of the areas have a mixed population. So, only 500 Hindus were sampled from Hindu dominant booths and only 500 Muslims were sampled from Muslim dominant booths in Kanpur-dehat; the rest 1000 respondents were sampled from booths having mixed populations.
The project addresses to answer the following Research questions-
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What is the perception of the people about their leaders: whether leaders properly represent the interest and welfare of the people? |
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Do people think that their leaders have the requisite qualities of leadership? |
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Do people prefer leaders belonging to their own caste and community, and not on grounds of leadership qualities? |
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Do leaders with religiosity more effective than leaders without religiosity? |
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Do people prefer voting leaders of their own religion? |
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Whether Hindus and Muslims differ in their preferences about leaders in general and leaders with religiosity in particular? |
Prof. Asmer Beg (AMU), Aligarh, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, (Y.D. College, Lakhimpur Kheri), Dr. Aditya Kumar (D.V.College, Orai), Dr. Ripu Sudan Singh (Baba Saheb Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow) are associated with the project as Area- Supervisors. Mr. Kamal Srivastava, Kanpur works as the overall Assistant Supervisor in the project. Sixty Research Investigators worked in the first phase and they were trained at three different workshops at Lucknow, Aligarh and Kanpur. For the second phase, 120 Research Investigators will be trained similarity.
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