The golden jubilee of the recent Asia-Africa Conference provided much food for a re-think of newer contexts of the so-called 'spirit of Bandung' and, simultaneously, fundamental challenges since 1955.

I want to propose in this essay the problematical nexus between religions and globalisation as the framework in which we can reclaim that spirit.

Let me start by looking back into the historical moment which erupted half century ago in Bandung. And what a historic moment it was!

For the first time in 'history' - and history is always the story of the master's, the privilege and dominating class - "'the underdogs of the human race" were meeting as famous Afro-American writer Richard Wright described the conference he was attending.

Truly, the Bandung conference was 'the meeting of the rejected'. It was a crossroads in the history of humanity which, at the same time, provided stimulus to re-read and re-write the master's history from the point of view of those on the underside.

Indonesian president Sukarno, always flamboyant and visionary, gave an opening speech that electrified everyone and caught the spirit and the challenges of the history.

"Many peoples and countries have awakened from centuries of slumber. Tranquility has given way to struggle and action. This irresistible force is sweeping the two continents," he said.

But he also warned the participants, with prophetic insight, that they should "not think of colonialism only in the classic form which we in Indonesia and our brothers in different parts of Asia and Africa knew".

"Colonialism has also its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control, and actual physical control by a small but alien community within a nation," he said.

Crisis in religions

Re-reading Sukarno's statement half century later proved how true his prophetic voice was. After the so called decolonisation process, the breakdown of Cold War (and the triumph of capitalism), colonialism still living healthy and happily ever after in its new dress: the neo-liberal version of globalisation process.

As I will mention below, neo-liberalism was manifested, or at least claimed by its adherents, as the 'new religion' in this 'end of history' (Fukuyama) period of history.

Thus reclaiming the spirit of Bandung should begin with radical critique of this dominant version of globalisation, opening critical spaces for a politics of hope and also by that move a new vista can be charted.

I believe in that process interfaith encounters can contribute significantly. But, to begin with, we must re-think the radical challenge that globalisation posed to religious traditions inherited from the past.

It is already a clich to say that the process of globalisation posed a serious or even radical challenge to religious traditions around the world.

But I want to suggest that globalisation has already become a crisis for religious traditions. It is a crisis in its two senses: radical challenge but also, at the same time, opening a vast opportunity for all religious traditions to redeem themselves and, by that move, play unprecedented new roles in the history of humankind.

Let me try to substantiate that assertion by looking critically into the process of globalisation. I don't want to plunge into endless and labyrinth-like discussions on how to understand and conceptualise globalisation. Let the scholars debate that.

But, at least, we can see two contradictory readings on this complex issues: in one reading, globalisation can be seen as the higher stage of modernity that has already become self-reflective; in an opposite reading, globalisation can be seen as a new social order, a new saeculum in which the relationship between the parts and the whole has not only been rearranged but also has undergone a radical transformation.

Whichever reading you take, globalisation does not promise the end of religion, as usually argued by the myth of secularisation, and not even its sublimation, but its re-invention and its re-inception.

It is from this perspective that we can see the crisis of religions in facing globalisation. The technological revolutions in transportation, communication and information have not only made us live in a global village, but has made that village increasingly smaller.

This 'time-space compression', using David Harvey's famous phrase, has forced every religious tradition, for better or worse, to admit that it is not an island secured by its dogmatic ghettos, and building its own kingdom.

Landscape change

Look at what has happened to 'world religions'. It is interesting to see that these were tightly concentrated in their regional strongholds except, perhaps for Christianity and Islam.

Globalisation has changed all the religious landscapes. Now we can find more and more religious communities in the most unexpected places.

There are over a million Japanese Shintoism in Brazil; more than four million Turkey-German-Muslims in what was the heart of Christian Europe' and the Goan Catholic enclaves on the west coast of India; and hundreds of thousands of Buddhist communities on the west coast of America. And that is not the end of the story.

Globalisation has made possible what was believed before as 'the universal claim' of religions, that we live together on one planet, as an interdependent part of the human family and, because of that, share global or planetary responsibility.

But, at the same time, that burden of global responsibility challenges the core of religious belief, that is, its 'absolute truth' claim. For the first time in human history every religion should learn to respect and work together for the betterment of all sentient beings.

In a globalised world, only two alternatives are possible - either survive or perish together. I think the basic issue of the much debated concept of 'pluralism' (or 'multi-culturalism', if you like) precisely lie within this question: how, instead of perishing together, can religions develop mutual respect and work for the survival of mankind?

In other words, globalisation has posed a radical challenge for religions to transcend their dogmatic ghettos, encounter each other, and develop further the global awareness and responsibility.

It is only by meeting these challenges that religions can play significant roles as 'ways (not the ends) of salvation' in this globalised world.

Reclaiming Bandung

The Asia-Africa conference was a historic moment to re-think and re-envision those roles. And not only because what happened 50 years ago, but also, theologically speaking, Asia-Africa are still the authentic theological context for every genuine role that can be played by religions.

On those continents we can find not only its 'third world-liness' (the overwhelming structural poverty), but also its 'afro-asian-ness', (its multiplicity of religious traditions). Every religion must reconsider its 'missions' to deal with these two-sided problems.

The ambivalence of the globalisation process - that is, the emerging global awareness and responsibility on the one hand, and widening structural injustice in the world on the other hand - underscores the urgency for every religions to reconsider its own 'calling' and re-envision its roles.

Whether or not religions can meet these challenges will be the testing ground as to whether religion still has a place in the future.

To borrrow Mary John Manazan, a Filipino female theologian, globalisation itself, especially its neo-liberal version, has already became "a new religion that has its dogma (profit), its ethical principles (laws of the market), its prophets and high priests (IMF-World Bank, transnational corporations), its temples (mega-malls), its rituals (stock market biddings), its altar (market), its victims for sacrifice (greater majority of excluded peoples)".

Thus, if religious traditions fail to meet the challenges, we will live in a globalised world in which the market, profit and commodification of desires will become our only language to deal with each other - a really threatening world!

The celebration of Bandung's solidarity should be the first step in reclaiming its spirit to face this unprecedented challenge to humanity.

TRISNO S SUTANTO is a philosopher now working for Madia, a society for interfaith dialogue in Jakarta, Indonesia.