Inclusion and exclusion in South Asia: The Role of Religion

Three values guide this paper as indeed they must inspire the very idea of human development: peace, freedom and equality. These values are also presupposed by the idea of an inclusive society. Surely part of what is meant by the term ‘inclusive society’ in the contemporary context is that it be a community of free and equal persons. In our discussions, it is not inclusion per se that is at issue but voluntary inclusion on fair and equal terms. Indeed we might even say that inclusion here is a term of art of which freedom and equality are constitutive features and peace its necessary precondition. Thus contemporary emancipatory movements do not aim to include people only in order to rank them in political, social or cultural hierarchy. Nor is their objective to bring people into an oppressive order. They are propelled by belief that freedom and equality for all can only be enhanced by inclusion.