Religion as a System of Panopticon: With Reference to Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish.

Mr. Rohan Sarfraj

Research Scholar

Department of PG Studies and Research in English

Kuvempu University, Shankaraghatta 577451

Shivamogga, Karnataka

Abstract

We live in a society that is being controlled at every instance by some dominant forces that are controlled by the dominant strata. Since Religion itself has become a dogmatic container that upholds the rigidity of mankind, to pursue the underlying fear. Any religion that symbolizes the internalized control and authority tends to make its believers fools to rule over them. This is what Michel Foucault has explained in his concept of Panopticon. So Religious Panopticon is a term which can be traced back to Foucault’s assumption of religion as an institutional exercise. Religion as a form of knowledge has been used by those in power to control and regulate people’s thoughts and behaviors which in turn subordinate the logical essence of mankind. The basic design of Jeremy Bentham’s model of the Panopticon is the key factor in the research paper in order to understand the basic assumptions and ideas of any social institution such as e religion to dominate the ideologies of the population. This model has laid down a classic example of how humanity itself has become a prison for the mankind. It is important to focus on the fact of recovering the voiceless experiences of the downtrodden to understand the grounds on which the people are being exploit and also to establish a sense of scientific temperament in the society.

This research paper examines the need to understand the audacity of Religion to control the masses through its rudimental principles and ideologies to uphold the power that is felt but not observed. It often happens not by forcing people but by making them self regulate themselves.

Key Words: Religious Panopticon, Downtrodden, Self-sensor, State Apparatus, Scientific temper, Rationalism.

Introduction

Religion has always been one of the most crucial factors in shaping our lives. It demands the utmost influence in intriguing the social phenomenon that alters the day-to-day activity of an individual and is a tool for control or answers for the unexplainable. This paper will try to analyze religion as a system of Michel Foucault’s theory of Panopticism which also upholds a systematic prison structure laid by Jeremy Bentham. A panopticon is a system of surveillance in which the central power controls all the other inferior systems. Here the one who is being oppressed or controlled never knows whether their ‘fear’ or ‘belief’ is true or not. A panopticon is a system in which several subjects are being held captive in any sense and being ruled simply with or without being informed. And this control can occur both consciously and unconsciously. This phenomenon of ‘control’ can also be analyzed in the perception of ‘Ideological State Apparatus’ and ‘Repressive State Apparatus’. Ideologically this control can occur with the control of Religion, caste, culture, music, art, traditions, and moral values, whereas on the other hand, the very oppression can take place through Power, politics, and Punishment.

When it comes to the aspect of Panopticism, it becomes important to evaluate the structure of religion along with the post-modern theory of Foucault’s Panopticism in his book Discipline and Punish (1977). One of Foucault’s key ideas was the concept of “power-knowledge,” which refers to how power and knowledge are intertwined and used to shape and control individuals and society. He argued that religion, as a form of knowledge, has been used by those in power to control and regulate people’s thoughts and behaviors. According to Foucault, Power and knowledge are not two different things but are the same. The very idea of knowledge creates power relations and the production of knowledge is a way of exercising power. He states that power is everywhere diffused and embodied into discourse and is a regime of truth. “Foucault recognizes that power is not just a negative, coercive or repressive thing that forces us to do things against our wishes, but can also be a necessary, productive and positive force in society” (Gaventa 2). It comes from everywhere hence it is neither an agency nor a structure. This is how both Power and knowledge create a relationship that creates a predicamental situation out of any religion. By the use of this combo, religion can take over any social institution through its ideological essence of inferiority.

The basic design of Jeremy Bentham’s model of the Panopticon is this: there is a central tower surrounded by cells. In the central tower is the watchman. In the cells are prisoners – or workers, or children, depending on the use of the building. The tower shines bright light so that the watchman can see everyone in the cells. But the prisoners would never know whether the watchman was present in the central tower or not. But the most important part to be observed here is that, even in the absence of the watchman every prisoner will self-regulate themselves by the ‘fear’ of being watched.

“Visible: the inmates will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied on. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. In order to make the presence or absence of the inspector unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow” (Foucault, 201).

We can also see this in the context of CCTV cameras in social institutions. This is exactly how Religion works. Not by physically forcing people but by making them to self-regulate themselves.  The believers are always aware that their God is watching them. This innate fear of being watched and of being summoned to hell is what makes them self-sensor themselves. With this fear of going to hell and of receiving punishment for sinning, the laity will freely watch themselves. Therefore, assuming religion as an institution exercises power relations that can be recognized by Foucault’s Panopticism, a religious Panopticon.

Fig. 1. Langen, Nicholas Reed. “Watching Me, Watching You”. The Justice Gap, 2023.

According to me, Religion is a set of ideas and values that upholds the concept of binary opposites between Superior and Inferior. The God-like entity is considered to be the superior which holds the power while bifurcating the society into many. Rationalists believe in what science proves but religious people are always bound to the social contract laid down by the higher religious authorities. They can never think out of the box, even though not even 10 percent of what is said in the name of religion can be proved. I believe that the root cause for all these misbelieves is that humans are so weak that they cannot live self-reliantly. We as humans always need someone or some divine entity to rely on. This might be well enough to ardently accumulate people on the right path, but the problem arises when it takes the entire population under control and begins to vanish the scientific and intellectual essence of our society. Any society would stand strong until it is bound to valid intellectual and enlightenment values. The moment it slips into the rigid pit of religion, the individual thoughts, and ability to question and counter might be diminished.

I believe that it is just a matter of choice, in how we need to live. Let us assume that there are two people of the same age and strength. One becomes an atheist and the other one becomes religious. They might live their lives according to their own social and economic backdrop and might also die at the same age. Every single action of their life depends on what they believe in. One with the most rational thoughts might be able to do anything according to his ideas. Whereas the other one might restrict himself to a framework of religion and live a life concisely. So it is just a matter of choice of how one desires to live. Whether we want to live freely or do we need to restrain ourselves from worldly pleasures by staying within the boundaries of religion. Is it not morally better to do something for the right reasons rather than being forced into it? Does god run the panopticon to ensure no dissent to the regime he wants to run is effectively aired? Or is it not god who runs the panopticon but it’s a fake set up by tyrannical religious institutions? These are the questions that might possibly dismantle the roots of Oppressive Religious institutions which aim at killing the intellectual and scientific ability of the human race.

As Salman Rushdie writes “Respect for religion has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

Yet every religion has indeed abandoned the basic right of every individual to question reality.  It is only when we start questioning the basic assumptions of religion, each layer has to be dismantled in order to uncover the reality that is been hidden in the disguise of the divine entity. Higher authorities manipulate the religious texts according to their needs to control society. Hence this trick of letting us believe to choose what has been imposed on us without any choice is what Louis Althusser terms as ‘Interpellation’. Hence it is the interpellation that becomes the driving force of the masses to believe what they think they choose to believe. This is where free speech plays an impeccable role. The moment we limit free speech is not free speech anymore. It is inevitable to understand human behavior and their need for internalizing the ideology of a state with or without any repercussions which imbibes within unconsciously.

Hence religion functions as a controlling agent on the people who believe in it, like a panoptic prison to their prisoners. Thus it is quite evident that Religion as a social institution has become a rudimental system of Michel Foucault’s Panopticon.

Conclusion

Panopticon is a systematically organized way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society. Likewise, Religion also is a very well organized system of thoughts and ideologies in which discipline and Punishment according to its own need are arranged in such order that the masses are scared to question its existence. This unseen fear is the root cause for all nuisance that are created in the name of Religion.  Religion as a form of knowledge had been used by those in power to control and regulate people’s thoughts and logical thinking. It aims at killing the scientific ability to think in terms of a rationale. The power and knowledge are not two different variables, but are the two faces of a same coin. The very notion of knowledge production created the power politics at the ground level, whereas the power functioning will provide the authority of knowledge production only to the higher classes. This discrimination tends to create a biased knowledge which is then generalized to the downtrodden strata of the society. Higher authorities manipulate the religious texts according to their needs to control society by the interpellation of the ideologies of the masses. So it is very important to analyze the very notion of religious exploitation in terms of Foucault’s panopticism.

Work Cited

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Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. New York: Modern Library, 2003.

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