Giving Compass' Take:

• This Stanford Social Innovation Review post examines Sriya Iyer’s book The Economics of Religion in India, which explores religious plurality in the country and how it has contributed to growth.

• What can the U.S. learn from the issues explored here? Which issues might seem too reductive?

• Here's more on India's economy, specifically when it comes to the roles of informal workers.

What does religion have to do with economics, and vice versa? While these may seem disparate concerns, their deep historical connection drives Sriya Iyer’s inquiry in The Economics of Religion in India, which endeavors to expand the study of religion through economic analysis and delves into the changing demographics of India’s religious pluralism in relation to its global economic ascent.

The colonizing powers of Europe incorporated the Christian church’s “civilizing mission” to justify the capture of lands that did not belong to them, the subjugation and oppression of people whose cultures and languages were foreign to them, and the exploitation of resources to fatten their coffers. An almighty sanction was invoked by the conquerors to legitimize the genocide of indigenous peoples across the New World; promote slavery in the United States, the Americas, and around the globe; and motivate the Opium Wars, which the British East India Company used to seize Chinese markets while forcing Indian peasants to grow poppies instead of life-sustaining rice or vegetables.

Read the full article about making economic sense of religion by Kavita N. Ramdas at Stanford Social Innovation Review.