ASSIGNMENT IN LIEU OF TEST

NAME: Anushravi Mishra

ROLL NO: 24501052
COURSE: BA Programme ( History+ Political science)
Q. WRITE A SHORT NOTE ON COMMUNALISM.
India is a multi-religious country. There are eight major communities coexist in this country.
Communalism in a broad sense means strong attachment to one’s own community. In Indian
context, it means unhealthy attachment to ones own religion. Religious differences between
groups often leads to tensions & rioting among them. Communalism essentially leads to
violence as it is based on mutual religious hatred. Communalism as a political philosophy
has its roots in the religious and cultural diversity of India. It has been used as a political
propaganda tool to create divide, differences and tensions between the communities on the
basis of religious and ethnic identity leading to communal hatred and violence.
Communalism has been a significant challenge since the country’s independence in 1947.
Adherence or attachment to religion or a religious system is not communalism. But using
religious communities against other communities or against the nation is communalism. It is
the enemy to progress, social change & democracy. Fundamentalist tendencies in religion
give rise to communal tensions. Jawaharlal Nehru once described “Communalism is the
Indian version of facism”.

WHAT IS COMMUNALISM?

COMMUNALISM is a situation when a particular community tries to promote its own

interest at the cost of other communities. A sense of loyalty of the interest of one particular
group (religious, ethnic, etc) rather than to society as a whole can lead to extreme behaviour
or violence towards others. Communalism is political trade in religion. It is an ideology on
which communal politics is based. And communal violence are conjectural consequences of
communal ideology.

In the words of Satish Sabarwal, “communalism in our sense means the channeling of
personal sentiments and actions primarily with reference to the ascriptive group whose
boundaries are determined by the accident of one’s birth.”5 In his book Gyanendra Pandey
argues that “the opposition to each others of religious communities is commonly designated
as communalism.”6 Many scholars hold the view that communalism is not essentially a
product derived out of religious feelings; it is a form of politics also. Prabha Dixit in her book,
‘Communalism, a Struggle for Political Power’ states that: “Communalism in India is neither
the reaction to anti communalism nor an outgrowth of religious and cultural differences but
it is a triangular power struggle of the elite.

According to Bipan Chandra “communalism is the belief that because a group of people
follow a particular religion, they have as a result, common social political and economic
interests.”8 In a concluding remark we can say that communalism is an ideology which
consists of three elements:

1. A belief that people who follow the same religion have common secular interests.

2. A notion that, in a multi-religious society like India, these common secular interests of one
religion is dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the follower of another religion.

3. The interests of the follower of the different religion or of different ‘communities’ are seen
to be completely incompatible, antagonist and hostile. Communalism is political trade in
religion.

Relation between Religion and Communalism

This is an ongoing debate among the scholars whether religion is the main cause of
communalism. Often many scholars maintain that main 'culprit' is religion and some even go
to the extent of saying that if there is no religion there will be no communalism. Of course it
is quite hypothetical formulation. Human beings cannot live without religion or some kind of
ideology which gives human life a meaning and direction and whatever the nature of
ideology or thought or value system it creates its own 'other'. And some form of struggle
starts between followers of one or the other ideology. Religion can be defined as a system of
beliefs and values with associated rituals to give these beliefs and values a concrete form.
When these beliefs and values are held in common and rituals are performed in
congregation it gives rise to a sense of commonality and a religious community comes into
existence.

This community is also product of a pre-existing social structure and this social structure
deeply influences the religious community and its practices. Thus all religions teach to be
truthful, compassionate, honest etc. It is this commonality of values, which is often asserted
to promote communal harmony. But, as pointed out above, there are marked differences
between religions in terms of rituals and cultural practices. Those who wish to promote their
agenda of creating conflict between communities they assert these ritual, social and cultural
differences. Over assertion on these differences often lead to social or political
confrontation. Thus the question of Ramjanambhoomi temple, basically a religious issue,
was cleverly exploited by the BJP politicians to gather Hindu votes. Also, recently Narendra
Modi, with the active support of top BJP leaders, provoked communal violence, mixing
religious discourse with political one .Thus from this it can be easily seen that it is politics
which uses religion than religion using the politics. Thus we can argue that in a democracy,
politicians exploit religious identity for political power. They, by clever mix of religious beliefs
and worldly interests, win the hearts and minds of people. Here it is important to note that
these politicians who evolve this clever but highly explosive mix of religion and political
power, do not represent interests of entire community but only its elite. There are two
alternatives for fighting communal politics. One alternative is to evolve carefully a secular
discourse around real developmental issues and mobilise people around these secular
issues. The other alternative is to use religious discourse in a creative manner making
religion an option for the poor rather than for the powerful elite. Every religion has certain
traditions, which can be used for empowering the poor. The vested interests exploit certain
problematic traditions for their own interests.

The Genesis of Communalism:

When we trace the genesis of communalism, we can see that it is not a very old
phenomenon. Studies in this area prove that communalism was not developed or practiced
as an ideology in ancient period or in the medieval periods. Ram Ahuja argues that
“Communalism was not a remnant of the past-a hangover from the medieval period……
Communalism was a modern phenomenon that arouse as a result of British colonial impact
and the response of several Indian social strata.”15 Gyanendra Pandey states that “Many
have underlined the fact that communalism as we know it is a new phenomenon, far from
being of hoary origins, or even of very long standing it is a development of the late colonial
period arising concurrently with nationalism if not being brought forward as a counterweight
to it.”16 Communalism began to spring up only in the colonial and capitalist society and
reached its heights in the democratic society. As the basis of communalism lies in the
competition for Modern achievement and urge for political supremacy, this cannot be traced
in the ancient or medieval period. If we discuss about Indian society, we will find that,
ancient India was united and no such communal feelings were there. People lived peacefully
together; there was acceptance for each other’s culture and tradition. For example, Ashoka
followed religious tolerance and focused mainly on Dhamma.17 In Medieval period, we have
examples such as- Akbar, who was epitome of secular practices and believed in propagating
such values by abolishing Jajhiya tax and starting of Din-I- Elahi and Ibadat Khana. Same
acceptance for different cultures and tradition was practiced in several kingdoms throughout
India, because of which there was peace and harmony, barring few sectarian rulers like
Aurangzeb, who was least tolerant for other religious practices. But, such motives were
guided purely for their personal greed of power and wealth.18 Communalism in India is
result of the emergence of modern politics, which has its roots in partition of Bengal in 1905
and feature of separate electorate under Government of India Act, 1909. Later, British
government also appeased various communities through Communal award in 1932, which
faced strong resistance from M.K. Gandhi and others. All these acts were done by the British
government to appease Muslims and other communities, for their own political needs. This
feeling of communalism has deepened since then, fragmenting the Indian society and being
a cause of unrest (by Communal award colonial government mandated that consensus over
any issue among different communities (i.e. Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs and others) is
precondition for any further political development) Communal consciousness arose as a
result of the transformation of Indian society under the impact of colonialism and the need
to struggle against it.19 Bipin Chandra argues that communalism developed in certain areas
and sections of society due to their failure to develop the new national consciousness. In
other words, communalism was generated by the lack of deeper penetration of nationalist
outlook and ideology. 20 What happened in 1920 or thereabouts to bring about this great
change when nationalism and communalism emerged as contrapuntal ideologies, intimately
related to each other in mutual antagonism? According to Pandey, secular nationalism
"contributed substantially") to the emergence of communalism because it resolutely
sidestepped religion in the public sphere (p 260), and instead emphasised religious tolerance
and a distancing from parochial ties (p 261). To recapitulate: In the first phase of colonialism
the state encroached upon the terrain of the local community (p 159) and loosened those
community bonding that held people together through generations. The damage was
completed by the emergence of the secular nationalist movement whose insistence on
steering clear of religious loyalties bred increasingly well articulated communal ideologies as
"counter constructions". The invasions of Muslim rulers were primarily not of religious
motives. They fought wars and conquered parts of Indian subcontinent because of their
political ambitions rather than propagation of faiths.

Why communalism still persists and increasing in modern India?

Regarding the many definitions like communalism is above all an ideology, a false
consciousness, a struggle for scarce resources, competition for jobs, and instruments of
ruling class politics and so on. According to Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “that ideology which has
emphasized as the social, political, and the economic unit the group of adherents of each
religion and has emphasized the distinction even the antagonism, between such groups”.22
Regarding some questions like, Is communalism a static phenomenon, or it is something
which has changed over a period of time? Is communalism of pre-Independence time the
same as communalism today or is communalism in its myriad and complex expression the
same in different parts of the country? We can see that communalism operates at different
levels, ranging from individual relations and interest to the local, institutional and national
politics and to communal riots.

K.M. Panikkar argues that, there is a whole range of social relations and politics over which
communalism pervades today, this spread of communalism involves two interrelated central
issues. First is the state of consciousness in the society and the second is communalism as an
instrument of power, not purely for capturing state power, but operating in political, social,
and economic domains and at almost all levels of social organization.23 That is
communalism and communal mobilization is based on a perception that there are identities
which are based on religious belonging. Such an identity can be manipulated for purpose of
power at various levels.

In Indian politics the main root of maximization of votes is communal mobilization on local
level to urban level. In this context Panikkar says that political parties organized around
communal ideologies and organized their programmes around communal goals. For
instance, the Muslim league during the pre-independence period had an Islamic state as its
goal. The Hindu Mahasabha during the same period stood for Hindu Rashtra. They had
explicit religious and communal goals. In contemporary India, the best example of this
political formation is the BJP. We can see that BJP main plank is Hindu nationalism on the
basis of hindutva ideology. They explicitly make their political programmed around a
communal goal that is hindu nationalism. This aim is expressed in all that they do, beginning
with the choice of the colour of their flag to the distribution of trisuls to Ramshila puja, to
Advani’s rathyatra and to the instigation of riots.24 In his article ‘what is communalism
today’ Pandey states that, the first major manifestation of that trend was the Hindu Kalash
Yatra which was in fact the precursor of what the BJP, the VHP etc are doing today, viz the
creation of a religious symbol around which Hindus could be rallied. By openly blessing and
supporting the yatra, Indira Gandhi tried to identify herself with Hinduism. The most
desperate and despicable political act of the Congress was Rajiv Gandhi’s election campaign
with the ‘Rama Rajya’ speech at Ayodhya and the exploitation of Hindu sentiments about
the Ramjanma bhoomi issue.25 The present day Hindu nationalist movement in India dates
back to 1925, when the RSS was founded. Its call for a revival of Hinduism combined with a
fervent nationalist pride proved to be a popular and the organization grew rapidly.26 We are
familiar with Golwalkar’s pitribhumi-punyabhumi qualification for a true national. Of course,
muslims, and Christians, on account of their holy land being outside the boundaries of
Bharatmata, are perpetual suspects. Ghar wapsi is an ideological project to produce the loyal
citizen for the hindu nation-state. For the VHP, therefore a change of faith from hinduism to
Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism, for that matter, doesn’t dismember the Hindu nation, but one
to islam and Christianity does. In the context of ideological state apparatus, we want to draw
the attention that RSS has open many schools hospitals, and charity work. Commentator
have often pointed Gujarat is considered to be a ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ because of the
entrenchment of organization like the VHP and the RSS in Gujarat society in politics and in
state institutions.27 To understand the actual embeddedness of the state we should not just
focus on the symbolic ‘language of stateness’ that shapes the everyday experience of the
state, we should also study that ‘blurred boundary’ between state and society as a ‘field of
power’(Bourdieu 1977,1991) marked by intense competition for access to state resources. It
is attached with the strategies of state institution and needy citizen.28 Violence seems most
likely in areas where there are politicians are supported by local networks of extremist
organizations and individual who specialize in creating and maintaining communal tensions.
These networks according to Brass (1998, 2003), are ‘institutionalized riot systems’. As such
actors keep communal tensions alive throughout the years through a steady infusion of
communal ideology, a precipitating incident can easily be interpreted as an instance of
broader communal conflict. If the activities of these networks are not kept in check, either
by the police or by civic bodies large scale violence may develop (cited in Riot Politics, 2011,
Ward Berenschot).29 Another boost for the morale of the rioters was the tacit- and
sometimes very open support that the Hindu mobs received from the police. As the slogan
ran at that time: ‘Andar ki bat hai, police hamare sath hai’. Both Brass and Wilkinson argue
for a close relation between elections and the occurrence of violence. Wilkinson used an
extensive dataset on incidences of rioting throughout India to point out that riots occur
significantly more often in the six months before or after elections.31 We can take the
example of Muzzaffarnagar riots before Lok Sabha election.

COMMUNALISM AND POLITICS IN INDIA

There is a close relationship between communalism and politics in India. Communalism is
one of the most secular spheres in Indian politics. The elite, who are largely responsible for
instigating communal violence, are fiercely secular. Communalism in politics is leading to the
emergence of a new kind of a political culture. Now a day’s communalism is promoted by
absence of ideology in politics. Many times people voted not because of their ideological
performance they are voted for the simple reason that their community wants them in
power. Communal politics simply means that people with a common religion have similar
interests and their religion is above other religions. Casteism, linguistic, regionalism and
factionalism are very common problems in Indian politics. There is a common features in
Indian politics is coalition. That’s why the influence of communalism in Indian politics is very
common. The different castes and communities determining the political stability and
instability of Indian politics. Now a day’s no coalition government come into political power
without support of caste and communal groups. Communalism always remains a political
weapon in India. Politician has played the major role to creating a serious communal
situation in India. The communal politics rooted in the painful partition in the name of a
particular religious community. Communal violence strengthens the vote bank of
ideologically alliance political parties and it affects serious damage to communal harmony in
the long run. Simply communalism refers to a politics that attempts to unite one community
around a religion identity in hostile opposition to another community. The religious
differences are expressed in the field of politics. Communalism and Indian politics there is a
closer relationship. The communalism in politics emergence of a new kind of political
culture. In India, there are number of various religious and ethnic communities. The
fundamental values of communal politics are that religion serves as the cornerstone of a
social community. The conflict over religion rapidly increased in the political sphere. In India,
everyone have their own religion, ethnic identity and they are demands in politics as
members of a religious community. When one religion groups or community demand are set
forth in opposition to another and one religious groups or community dominations over the
another means one religious beliefs are superior to others religions and needs of two or
more different religious groups conflict.

CONCLUSION:
Now a day, communalism has impact huge way in the Indian Citizen and has affected a lot of
families directly and indirectly. The communal riots, violence should be strictly handled by
the Govt. of India and taken by the various steps and implementation which can be help to
promote cultural harmony and togetherness among the different communities. The
globalization also plays a major role to bring the world closer and reducing communalism in
the different countries of world including India.