Involvement of the Buddhist Society in Various Social Activities and Social Integration

Abstract


INTRODUCTION
The complicated nature of religion makes it difficult to trace its roots. Totemic religions worshipped and revered objects integral to their methods of production. Since the dawn of civilization, certain occurrences that defy scientific explanation have found a home in religious doctrine. As a result, the focus of almost all ancient religions shifted from the natural world to the supernatural, with the end goal of finding means to appease and accept the beneficence of these beings. In his need to find meaning in life, man turned to his worship of the supernatural. Religion functioned as a social awareness as it provided a mechanism through which evolving groups might remain together.
A social phenomenon and a method of social cohesiveness, as articulated by German sociologist Emile Durkheim. Marx, on the other hand, saw religion as a way to provide illusory psychological gratification and hope while man remained in genuine suffering. The opiate of the people, as he memorably put it. Religion, in Buddhism's more nuanced view, is seen as a collection of concepts that belong to sociology and psychology rather than theology. Buddhism is a worldview that examines and offers answers to some of life's most fundamental issues, including the universality of suffering and the need of individual agency in overcoming adversity.
Furthermore, the ethos of Buddhism is meant to be democratic in social and political contexts. No gods, ghosts, or reincarnated saints are welcome here, and we don't care whether there is an afterlife or a judgment day or if we may be saved.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Vajpayee, Aparna. (2021). An examination of the country's distinctive Buddhist religious and political orthodoxy is offered in the proposed article. Bhutan is unified not just in its policy theory but also in its politics, religion, and ethnicity; it is also a democracy and a diverse society that operates under a monarchical framework with a strong emphasis on religious tolerance. Similarly, Bhutan's domestic corporate environment creates a working atmosphere and culture that are strikingly distinct from the prevailing globalization and internationalization trends of the present day.

III. INVOLVEMENT IN VARIOUS SOCIAL ACTIVITIES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION • Participation in Clubs, Societies & NGOs
In this subsection, we've dealt with the respondents' social lives as Buddhists. Jammu and Kashmir had the highest percentage of respondents who are members of a club or society at 50% (Fig.1), followed by Sikkim at 44%, Himachal Pradesh at 29%, Uttarakhand at 11%, and Arunachal Pradesh at 11.1%. Of these people, 33.3% live in Jammu and Kashmir and are members of an exclusively Buddhist club or organization, followed by 23.9% in Uttarakhand, 22.2% in Sikkim, 21.1% in Himachal Pradesh, and 11.1% in Arunachal Pradesh (Fig. 1).

Fig.4: Respondents who are members of NGO, and whether that NGO is exclusively for Buddhists and how
many of them regularly visit the club.  6). Sikkim had the highest percentage (33.3% of respondents) of participating in a strike or demonstration as a member of this professional association, followed by Jammu & Kashmir (13.3%), Himachal Pradesh (7.9%), Arunachal Pradesh (5.6%), and Uttarakhand (4.4%) (Fig.6). Arunachal Pradesh (16.7%), Jammu and Kashmir (6.7%), Himachal Pradesh (5.3%), and Sikkim (2.2%) have the highest rates of responder participation in their respective affiliations. If there are 4.3% of respondents from Uttarakhand, 3.3% from Jammu and Kashmir, and 2.6% from Himachal Pradesh, the amount of linkage is not significant. 11.1% of respondents in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh also hold an office in their organization, followed by 5.3% in Himachal Pradesh and 3.5% in Jammu & Kashmir (Fig. 7).  Members of a social club or organization in Jammu and Kashmir had the highest percentage of Buddhist responders among the Indian Himalayan states studied. The largest number of Buddhists belong to exclusive clubs here as well.
In any event, regular club or society attendance is especially notable in Himachal Pradesh. The majority of respondents in Sikkim are involved with non-governmental organizations (NGO) and are either members or regularly communicate with these groups. Respondents in Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh all belong to a Buddhist NGO, however in Sikkim and Uttarakhand there is no such organization. The responders in Sikkim are the most active since they belong to a professional organization.

IV. INVOLVEMENT IN SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
Here we look examine how Buddhist respondents throughout the Himalayan nations generally get along with one another. (Fig. 8) The residents of Uttarakhand are the most likely (41.3%), followed by those of Himachal Pradesh (36.8%), Sikkim (33.3%), Arunachal Pradesh (16.3%), and Jammu and Kashmir (10.0%), to routinely celebrate with people of other ethnic backgrounds. Sikkim reported 66.7% of its residents doing so, whereas Jammu and Kashmir reported 63.3%, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh both reported 50%, and Uttarakhand recorded just 32.6% (Fig. 8). In contrast, just 22.2% of respondents in Arunachal Pradesh understood the meaning of the holiday (Fig. 9), while 81.6% of those from Himachal Pradesh did. In comparison, the corresponding figures for Uttar Pradesh were 76.7%, Jammu and Kashmir 76.7%, Uttarakhand 58.7%, Sikkim 55.2%, and Uttar Pradesh 76.7%. All age groups responded in full force in Sikkim, but in Jammu and Kashmir only 90% did so, followed by Himachal Pradesh (79%), Uttarakhand (69%), and Arunachal Pradesh (6.11%; Fig. 9).   (Fig. 11). Figure 12 shows that the highest percentage of people who attended non-Buddhist schools was 100% in Sikkim, followed by 86.8% in Uttarakhand, 82.6% in Jammu and Kashmir, 80% in Arunachal Pradesh, and 66.7% in Sikkim. The percentage of non-Buddhist respondents living with Buddhists is highest in Sikkim (100%) and lowest in Jammu and Kashmir (83.3%), Uttarakhand (82.6%), and Arunachal Pradesh (66.7%), as shown in Figure 12 However, 66.7% of respondents generally accepted non-Buddhist friends into their homes, including 61.1% in Arunachal Pradesh, 54.3% in Uttarakhand, 50% in Himachal Pradesh, and 10% in Jammu & Kashmir.  Uttarakhand, followed by Himachal and Sikkim, stands out for the frequency with which respondents report participating in the celebrations of other cultures. Jammu & Kashmir stands out due to the high percentage of responders who do not participate in interfaith celebrations. However, the residents of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have the highest levels of awareness of the significance of the festivities, especially when many ethnicities and their families participate. Himachal Pradesh has the highest percentage of respondents who identify as having non-Buddhist friends or partners. This exemplifies how extensively Buddhist and non-Buddhist groups mix and mingle with one another.

V. PRESENCE IN THE SOCIETY
Sixty percent of respondents in Jammu and Kashmir consider themselves to be very influential members of society, but in other regions that number drops to as low as eleven percent in Arunachal Pradesh. There were 33.3% of people who answered the survey in Sikkim who considered themselves superior to the rest of society, followed by 16.7% of those who answered the same question in Arunachal Pradesh, 1.3% of those who answered the same question in Jammu and Kashmir, and 4.3% of those who answered the same question in Uttarakhand. Himachal Pradesh (5.3% of respondents) and Uttarakhand (2.2% of respondents) are the only two states where respondents report feeling slightly inferior to their spouses of other faiths. Fig.13: Respondents perception of themselves as compared to other. Figure 14 shows that 73.7% of respondents in Himachal Pradesh, 61.1% in Arunachal Pradesh, 55.6% in Sikkim, 50% in Jammu and Kashmir, and 41.3% in Uttarakhand believe that more people should accept Buddhism. Ninety-four percent of those polled in Arunachal Pradesh shared this sentiment, followed by eighty-nine percent in Sikkim, seventy-eight percent in Uttarakhand, sixty-three percent in Himachal Pradesh, and fifty-three percent in Jammu and Kashmir. However, 4.3% of Uttarakhand residents said they are always at a disadvantage, and 6.7% said it happens sometimes. While 26.7% of respondents in Jammu and Kashmir, 22.2% in Sikkim, and just 2.6% in Himachal Pradesh claimed they were occasionally oppressed because of their religion, 4.3% of respondents in Uttarakhand felt the same way. In Arunachal Pradesh, 100% of Buddhists surveyed reported never been a victim.
Only in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh did respondents rate themselves as superior to other groups, whereas in Uttarakhand they rated themselves as average or somewhat worse. More respondents in Himachal Pradesh believe that more people there should be exposed to Buddhism, followed by those in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.