Publication

Abstract : The paper is an attempt to understand the impact of religious propaganda on believers and evaluating their attitudinal changes, both personal and trade-related towards nonbelievers. To analyse the impact of propaganda, a controlled experiment was undertaken with 86 post graduate students and 3 faculty members from a College in Tamilnadu and subjecting them to narratives based on three different forms of propaganda - fundamentalist, moderate and secular. After each propaganda, the responses were taken through a questionnaire to measure the impact of propaganda on personal relations and commercial relations: 1) with believers or people following the same set of beliefs, 2) with non-believers or people projected as enemies of the community, and 3) with intermediaries or people who are deemed as tolerable. The results were statistically analysed and interpreted. The results provide insights into the value of different types of propaganda on commercial and personal interactions between those subjected to the propaganda and the community targeted through such propaganda (believers and non-believers). The results show that moderate propaganda is not a full-fledged antidote to fundamentalist propaganda; it only improves the commercial relationships. Only secular propaganda can withstand the onslaught of fundamentalist propaganda in both personal and commercial interactions. The results also reveal that creating a set of intermediaries would be helpful in increasing the commercial interaction among believers and non-believers.