The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions andReligious Counterrevolutions

Abstract

In his book, Michael Walzer addresses a fundamental question: whyhave secular, modernizing, national liberation revolutions in Algeria, Israel,and India given rise to religious counterrevolutions? In answering, Walzerexplains that the movements which led the revolutions in these countries were‘liberationist" in character but differed from national liberation movementswhich combined liberation from colonial rule with demands for democracy andsecularism. The irony of liberation, he notes, is that the elite leadership in eachcase sought to inject their nations with modernism and liberate people fromunderdevelopment but at the same time showed little enthusiasm for projectsof radical change. Moreover, they misjudged the extent of religious sentimentwithin their societies. He notes how the exclusion of conservative religiousforces from the processes of national construction and social modernizationproved to be a mistake and that these groups needed to be incorporated into theproject of state building and encouraged to accept modernization and change.Walzer gives a compelling explanation for the rise of religious fundamentalistrevivalism in the three countries. However, the implicit view that Zionism iscomparable with Algerian and Indian national liberation movements leaves thework open to critique.