MINISTER Abdul Latif Siddique gave a capitalistic speech on the nonproductivity of religious practices like holy Hajj and Tabligh Jamaat during his recent visit to an extreme capitalistic country. His remark has been extensively criticised and protested at home and abroad. It has also embarrassed the government because he is a minister. Secular politics does not allow such words about religious practices of any religion. It is not comparable to the words related to fundamentalism or terrorism often used in political language. The prime minister has rightly decided to expel him from the cabinet.

It was in the 19th century when sociologists assumed there would be a decline in religious activity with the expansion of a modern industrial society. If any decline offered more work hours, it would raise production of marketable goods and services. The economic status system of the World Bank in 1989 created a division among countries into low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high income countries. Many countries got the upper status for their higher per capita incomes but their religious practices have not disappeared. Why are rich countries becoming secular but not the poor ones? Professor Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michigan and Pippa Norris of the University of Harvard found an expanding gap between religious and secular societies in their research in 2004.

People perform religious activities in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and some other religions. Many social researchers have viewed religious practice as a productive process over the past few decades. It was identified as a determinant of one's ability to produce household commodities and religious human capital. In 1990, Professor Laurence lannaccone of the Santa Clara University found that religious practice produced religious human capital, the inputs of which were the time spent in attendingchurches and money contributions to churches and charitable works in Christianity. People whose time had high monetary value were engaged in more money-intensive forms of religious practice. Isn't it similar to the practices in other religions? The Muslim also invests time and money for holy Hajj, Tablig Jamaat and other religious practices. Whatever is the intensity of participation, religious believers all over the world do the same to achieve human quality and social capital. Moreover, religious practices and festivals have a lot of economic implications, but they are not propagated.

Religious festivals create substantial demand for relational goods and services. The capitalist producers and businessmen acknowledge this to make profit from it. Traders in apparels, textiles and shoes in Bangladesh make a major part of their annual turnover during Eids and Pujas. Moreover, a substantial transaction takes place for sacrificing about six million animals during Eid-ul-Azha. These types of economic transactions take place in other Muslim countries, too. The economics of Christmas is also significant as it is typically a peak selling season in many nations over the world. Manufacturers of garments, footwear, accessories, home textiles, furnishing, toys, food products, grooming services, caterers, etc. do booming business during different religious festivals. Will they say anything against any extravagant expenditure on shopping or feasting?

Sometimes religious practices contribute to happiness as the believers often find happiness with little consumption. The New Economic Foundation has made an index for happy life, and Bangladesh was ranked 11th in the Happy Planet Index 2012. Like in other Muslim countries, rich people here perform the holy Hajj from their savings, which is not comparable to the spending on excursions. Contemporary development economists look for the activities with non-negative affects to others. Aren't the activities of Hajj and Tablig Jamaat non-affecting or least-affecting? This sort of activity deserves to be welcomed in this

world of competitive and conformist consumption.

Religious institutions and practices also promote inter-personal, inter-family and inter-society trust, faith and responsibility. The economic interdependency in the poor countries is too weak to build economic trust and responsibility. However, the trust on banks is credible even in a society with weak institutions because of the high level of economic interdependency. The aged people in developed countries do not need to think about any trust deficits for their insurance coverage. Who will shelter the aged in a poor country if his family members don't take his responsibility? Religious festivals here are counted as a means of transactions of relational goods to establish interpersonal linkages. Because of high transaction costs in the legal system, people often find shelter in social justice. Theoretically, the believers in religion will not follow unethical means. However, there are abuses of religious faith and trust, which demand rectification. Can the religious practices be ignored because of that?

Secular politicians often speak against ill-motivated use of religious practices with words like fundamentalism or terrorism. However, Mr. Siddique's remark was not against any political rivals. It was his personal observation on the religiosity of people performing Hajj and Tablig Jamaat. He shouldn't have expressed that in public. It is true that our Hajj pilgrims spend Tk. 40 billion but it very insignificant compared to the cost of corruption. Can we acknowledge that corrupt people are productive? They are anti-productive and have a negative impact on the economy. Our rank in public trust on politicians is 132 in the world with an index value of 1.9 out of 10. Won't it be rational to suggest that our politicians rectify themselves and pledge to facilitate production?

The writer is Associate Professor and Chairman, Department of Economics, Comllla University Email: akanda_ai@hotmall.com