Communalism- Meaning, Definition, Characteristics, Factors and Impacts
# Communalism
Communalism is a political philosophy, which proposes that market and money be abolished and that land and enterprises to be placed in the custody of community. But in the Indian subcontinent context, communalism has come to be associated with tensions and clashes between different religious communities in various religions.
Problem that arises between the socio-religious relations of the people who belong to various minority communities on the one hand and the majority community on the other can be referred to as Communalism.
It is important to note that Indian society was never homogeneous throughout history. It was a highly diverse religiously, culturally, caste-wise and linguistically but there was a hardly any tension between these groups. It all began with establishment of British rule in India and so most of the scholars agree that communalism is a modern phenomenon and not a medieval phenomenon.
# Definition of Communalism
1. According to Hussain Shaheen:- “If a person is deprived of her/his rights or privileges just on the basis of her/his community, this would constitute communalism.”
2. According to Abdual Ahmed:- “Communalize as a social phenomenon characterized by the religion of two communities, often leading to acrimony tension and even riots between them.”
3. According to Prabha Dixit:- “Communalism as a political doctrine which makes use of religious and cultural differences to achieve political ends.”
4. According to Bipin Chandra:- “Communalism is the product of a particular society, economy and polity, which divides people on the basis of religious and economic differences.”
5. According to Ram Ahuja:- “The antagonist practiced by the members of one community against the people of other community and religion can be termed as communalism.”
# Characteristics of Communalism
1. Communalism is an ideological concept.
2. It mostly rests on prejudice.
3. It causes rivalry and violence among masses.
4. It hinders the social peace, an economic prosperity and economic growth.
5. It damages the image of our country in an international platform that the world nations do not co-operate and collaborate such a communal nation.
6. Communalism promotes the sectarian characters in a society.
7. Community enables the people to think about the national interest and personal gains and think to be more important than the nation.
8. Communalism does not allow us to get best services from the excellent people from different communities.
# Factors OR Causes of Communalism
1. Design of the Leaders:- Proponents of this view hold that communalism has flourished in India, because the communalist leaders of both the Hindu and Muslim communities desire to flourish it, in the interest of their communities. The irony is that if communalism flourishes in India the minorities will suffer. The minorities perceive secularism as their productive cover and the only weapon against communalism. Nevertheless India’s colonial past which produced the divide and rule policy, the communal award, separate electorates on the basis of religions, strengthened the base of communities in India. Ultimately the partition of undivided India into Pakistan and India provided further an antagonistic feeling towards each other.
2. Tendency of the minorities:- The minorities fail to be intermingled in the national mainstream. Most of the members of minority communities do not participate in the secular nationalistic politics and insist on maintaining their separate entity. They also demand security of life and property, reservation for minorities in services etc.
3. Orthodoxy and obscurantism:- The orthodox and obscurantist members of the minorities feel that they have a distinct entity with their own culture pattern, personal laws and way of thinking. Such a feeling has prevented them from accepting the concept of secularism and religious tolerance. Hindu chauvinism is also equally responsible for non-acceptance of secular principles.
4. Organised and militant fundamentalist organization:- It has been argued by certain scholars that communal riots are mostly caused by organized fundamentalist organizations designed on the religious lines. Communal violence is the result of political attitude of inciting one community against the other for political purposes. This process gets accelerated through mechanizations of the preserve caste, community or religious leadership.
5. Weak economic status of the minorities:- The largest group of minorities in India still remains orthodox and traditional in outlook which contributes to national feeling. As such a major chunk of Muslims in India has failed to adapt the western scientific, technological and philosophical education. Owning to their educational backwardness, the Muslims have not been represented sufficiently in the public services, industry, trade, etc. This causes the feeling of relative deprivation, which in turn leads to the contempt of other communities better placed in industry, service and trade. Such feelings contain the seeds of communalism.
6. Geographical causes:- The territorial settlement of different religious groups especially Hindus, Muslims and Christians causes in them wide variation in the mode of life, social standards and belief patterns. Most often those patterns become contradictory and this may result in communal tension.
7. Poverty:- Mass poverty and unemployment create a sense of frustration among the people. It generates backwardness, illiteracy, ignorance, etc. The unemployed youth of both the communities can be easily trapped by religious fundamentalists and fanatics. They are used by them to cause communal riots. The weak economic status often breeds communalism.
8. Psychological causes:- Hatred, disgust, deceptive and misleading dogmas give rise to communal tensions. Stereotyped beliefs of both the communities towards one another tend to prevail since long. The Hindus construe the Muslims as fanatics and staunch fundamentalist. What is more important in this regard is that the Hindus believe that the Muslims are unpatriotic and owe their allegiance to the Islamic countries. On the contrary, the Muslims also feel that they are being treated as second rate citizens in India and their religious practices are looked down upon by the Hindus.
9. Failure of the government machinery:- The State government as well as the Union government cannot evade their responsibility for the growing communalism in our country. They have repeatedly failed on several occasions to take stock of situation, to anticipate in advance the sudden outbreak of riots. They have also failed to take immediate action to minimize the intensity of tension. The governments are only trying to scapegoat the opposition parties and throwing the entire blame on them. The government has also failed to abolish the political parties organized on the basis of communal feelings.
10. Provocation of enemy countries:- Some foreign countries interfere in India’s internal politics and try to destabilize her internal affairs by sitting one community against the other through their spying agents. The role of Pakistan in fostering communal feeling among the Muslims of our country can hardly be undermined. The Hindu fundamentalist leaders allege that the communal riots are provoked in India by Pakistan through its Indian agents.
11. Negative effect of mass media:- The messages is relating to communal tension in any part of our country is spread through the mass media. This has resulted in further tension and riots between the rival communities. As for instance, the news of demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya is spread like wildfire all over the country through mass media. This aggravated the situation further, as riots spread to several cities and towns.
# Impact OR Consequences of Communalism
1. Organization of Political parties on communal basis:- In India, many political parties have been organized on communal basis. For example, the Muslim league, the Hindu Maha Sabha, the DMK, the Akali Dal are organized on religious basis. Political leaders also encourage communalism to get votes at the time of elections.
2. Selection of candidates for election:- Political parties while selecting candidates for the election give great importance to communalism. A candidate belonging to the majority community in that constituency is given ticket of the party.
3. Voting on communal basis:- Voters generally vote on communal lines. Besides, communal riots often break out in many parts of the country. After getting elected the representatives try to safeguard the interests of their community and ignore national interests. These conditions hinder the progress of democracy in the country.
4. Threat to Indian Constitutional values:- It is also a threat to Indian constitutional values, which promotes secularism and religious tolerance. In that case, citizens don’t fulfill their fundamental duties towards the nation.
5. Threat to the unity and integrity of the nation as a whole:- It becomes a threat to the unity and integrity of the nation as a whole. It promotes only the feeling of hatred in all directions, dividing society into communal lines.
6. Barrier in the development of the nation:- Communal activities occurring frequently do harm the human resource and economy of the country and act as a barrier in the development of the nation.
7. Investment attitude cautious:- The investment attitude towards the country from foreign investors would be cautious; they tend to avoid the countries with a highly communal country, for not take the risk of end up losing their investment.
8. Flow of labor to unproductive activities:- The flow of labor from productive activities is diverted to unproductive activities there is massive destruction of public properties to spread the ideology.
9. Increase in violence:- A sudden increase in violence against any particular community causes mass exodus and stampede which in turn kills many number of people. For example, this was seen in the case of Bangalore in 2012, with respect to people from north-eastern states which was stimulated by a rumor.
10. Hatred among different religious sections:- It causes hatred among different religious sections in society and disrupts the peaceful social fabric of our society.
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