In parallel to the surfeit of religion and faith that now dominates discourse in India, neighbouring China has explicitly set its face against the twin concepts three months ahead of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China. President Xi Jinping, who is set to be re-elected for another five years, has reaffirmed the ideological terms of engagement before the ceremonial grandstanding in October. The CPC has directed its 90 million members to abjure religion for maintaining the party’s unity; the imprimatur is couched in the warning that religious belief is a “red line” for the cadres and those who resist will be punished by the organisation. Given the opaque structure of governance, it is hard not to wonder whether the liberal winds blowing over the past few years have compromised with, if not denuded, the concept of atheism, indeed the bedrock of Communist philosophy.

This fundamental maxim can be contextualised with the directive advanced by Wang Zuoan, the head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) ~ “Party members should be firm Marxist atheists, obey party rules, and stick
to the party’s faith. They are not allowed to seek value and belief in religion.” If the outrage and killings, embedded in religious beliefs and prejudices, has undermined cultural pluralism in India, the party in China has stoutly confronted the possible emergence of the canker ~ “Party members are forbidden from supporting or getting involved in religious affairs in the name of developing the economy or diversifying culture,” was Wang’s stern warning to the CPC cadres.

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Intrinsically, this is an essay towards a redefinition of the Communist Party’s equation with religion, though theoretically antithetical. Not that there is no support for religious beliefs within the party. Yet on the eve of the congress, there is
mounting concern over the fact that this has undermined the CPC’s values which are based on the Marxist concept of “dialectical materialism”.

This accounts for the alert sounded by Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the party’s Ethnic and Religious Committee~ “Once the party’s values are damaged, the party’s unity as well as its basic policy to regulate religions will be sabotaged.” He has emphasised the need for a firm political direction in managing religious affairs. The message is implicitly addressed to both the party and government.

It is hard to recall any previous party congress being preceded by a firm diktat against religious beliefs and practices per se. While this may seem only very natural for a Communist Party, some may even wonder ~ and not merely within China ~ whether a section of the omnipotent CPC has deviated from the original theoretical construct. Next to Buddhism,
Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Communist China, not to forget the 20 million Uygur Muslims. The country is inching towards religious pluralism.