Happiness in Bangladesh: The Role of Religion and Connectedness

Abstract

Research into the relation between religion and happiness offers inconclusive evidence. Religion seems to matter but it is not entirely clear how and why. Moreover much of the research to date is rooted in western experiences. This article analyzes primary data from Bangladesh to examine how religion figures in people's wellbeing and life chances. It identifies differences in reported happiness between the country's two largest religious populations: Muslims and Hindus. Our main argument is that the significance of religion is only really understood when considered alongside social, economic and political processes. The data and analysis make an important contribution to the limited knowledge we have of the relation between religion, political connectedness and happiness in non-western societies. It also highlights the need to incorporate more contextualizing analyses into our assessments of the relation between religion and happiness.

Consumer well‐being and social responsibility of subsistence entrepreneurs in subsistence marketplace

“…In Sri Lanka, the influence of Buddhism as a key social institution is very visible, with Buddhist values predominantly shaping day‐to‐day activities (Fernando and Cohen, 2013). In Bangladesh, Islam is constitutionally enshrined and observed by about 90% of the people, but other religions are also officially accepted, with Hinduism at 9% (Devine et al ., 2019).…”

One Religion, Two Tales: Religion and Happiness in Urban and Rural Areas of China

“…Religion is a subjective belief (or set of beliefs) that influences the desired life values, life styles, and life purposes of religious people (Cohen and Johnson 2017;Devine et al 2019;Fariddanesh and Rezaei 2019;Lun and Bond 2013). Thus, religion influences religious peoples' subjective responses to objective factors.…”

“…Meanwhile, scholars have proposed that among different cultural contexts, such as those found in East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East (e.g., Lim et al 2019;Devine et al 2019;Fariddanesh and Rezaei 2019), there has only been a very small volume of literature focusing on countries where atheism is the social norm (McCullough and Willoughby 2009;Potter 2003;Wielander 2017;Thege et al 2013;Yang 2006). China is considered to be much less religious than many Western countries (Overmyer and Edmonds 2003;Wang et al 2015).…”

Mapping the Terrain Report 2018-2019

“…Likewise, research among Muslim Indonesian students shows that Islamic beliefs lead to higher levels of moral reasoning within that population, with such beliefs being positively correlated with orthodox beliefs, prayer, and understanding of justice and equality (Chang-Ho, Ibrahim, & Kim, 2009). Evidence from Bangladesh suggests that happiness among Muslims is strongly related to sense of belonging and connectedness (Devine, Hinks, & Naveed, 2019). The Mapping the Terrain research agenda aspires to provide an evidence-based, multi-country study on the four selected constructs that would improve our understanding not only at the conceptual level, but also -and most importantly -indicate how these constructs may be integrated and infused in education in Muslim societies.…”