In this article you will learn about the Causes of Communalism in India.
Causes of Communalism in India
Communalism includes the exploitation of social pluralism of Indian society by fundamentalist groups, organisations and sects for securing their respective narrowly conceived political, sectarian and religious goals. Communalism has been a national menace, a big evil and a mental disease. The need is only to eliminate this menace and for finding remedies, it is essential for us to identify the cause behind the presence of communalism.
Communalism as a bad Legacy of History
The immediate past of independent India was an era of communal politics initiated and encouraged by the British rules and nurtured and practised by some Indian political parties like, Muslim League and other sectarian organisations. The introduction of the communal electorate as a device for implementing the British policy of Divide and Rule, gave fuel to the communalisation of Indian politics. This led to the birth of a communal divide and gradually to the outbreak of widespread communal riots. The partition of the country was a direct outcome of this process. The creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state gave strength to the idea as a Hindu state, despite the fact that a large number of Muslims continued to live in India even after 1947. The leaders of India realised the dangers of further disintegration of Indian pluralist society under the weight of communalism and hence decided to initiate a process of nation-building and national integration through the grant of right to equality and acceptance of secularism as the way of life. Unfortunately, some people in India, belonging to all communities, fail to forget the past. The legacy of the past continues to live and mar the present.
Communalisation of History
This approach has been keeping communalism alive. Several historians have been guilty of playing this negative and dirty role. They have preferred to describe the History of India as History of Hindu rulers, Muslim rulers, Maratha rulers, Sikh rulers and the like. Sectarianisation of history has fanned communalism. The Hindu regard Aurangzeb as the Muslim ruler who pursued the policy of destroying Hinduism, and Muslims regard him as the ruler who acted boldly to defend Islam against the Hindu revivalists and fundamentalists. Even while writing the history of national movement, some historians inadvertently and consciously try to project the role played by several communities. Even freedom fighters are described as Hindu, Muslim and Sikh freedom fighters.
Communalised Leadership
In the process of political socialisation and leadership recruitment in India, religion and religious institutions have been playing a key role. In particular, the minority groups have always projected and supported only those leaders who stand fully committed to their respective religious and sectarian interests. Such leaders become and remain leaders by pursuing sectarian interests. The practice of choosing candidates on communal lines and communalised voting have been keeping this menace alive. Even the educated elites and the so called secularist parties adopt communal postures for getting acceptance and support in politics. The failure of the political leadership to remain away from communalism has been responsible for keeping alive this demon.
Presence of some Communalist Political Parties and Groups
A major reason responsible for the continuance of communalism has been the presence of a large number of communal and sectarian political parties and organisations in the Indian political system. Several sectarian and fundamentally religious organisations, Majlises, Samities, Senas, Jehadies, Federationists have been all responsible for keeping alive the communal card. The activities of certain religious sects, at times, aggravate the fire of communalism in India. Even some self-proclaimed secularist parties have failed to avoid alliances with communalist parties and organisations.
Religions Orthodoxy
Another factor that has bred communalism, has been religious orthodoxy and obscurantism among some religious groups. Some Muslim religious organisations remain committed to obscure and medieval glories of Islam, the supremacy of Islam and the Shariat, and the Muslim personal law. These organisations usually toe the orthodox lines and refuse to accept the new realities of a modern society. Every attempt on the part of the government towards a restructuring of old practices is viewed with distrust and as an invasion against religion. Even such amendments in some practices are now accepted in some Islamic states of the world. Formation of ‘Muslim Senas’ for protecting Muslim mosques, graveyards and other areas is being restored to by these Muslim organisations. Attempts at modernisation and development are regarded as unwanted impositions upon Muslims in the name of Indianisation by them. Such a thinking, naturally, invites strong opposition and reaction from Hindu hardcore organisations. The net result has been the presence of communalism in India. Some Hindu, Sikh and Christian orthodox and fundamentalist organisations have been also responsible for keeping communalism alive in India.
Communalisation of Political Struggle
Some political parties of India do not hesitate to use the communal factor for securing advantageous positions in the struggle for power. These fully exploit the social appeal of communalism. Even the communist parties and self-proclaimed secularist parties do not refrain from using the communal card. The CPM does not hesitate to join hands with the Muslim League or the All India Muslim League for wielding power. In fact, no party hesitates in getting power and support from a sectarian and religious party for getting political power. Opportunistic alliances like BJP-BSP and SP-CPM, CPM-BSP, Congress-Muslim League, Congress-SP and the list is long, reflects this practice. In July 2008, on the eve of the trust vote in the Lok Sabha, we all witnessed unprincipled and corrupt exercise on the part of almost all political parties of India. Such activities of both the ‘secularist’ and ‘communalist’ parties do a great harm to the cause of secularism, nationalism and modernism, and conversely, these strengthen communalism in India.
Religious Fanaticism
Religious Fanaticism has been such a great cause of communalism that many students of Indian politics tend to equate it with communalism. Movements for religious fundamentalism and revivalism have, of late, been gaining strength in India. Each religious community is getting engaged in celebrating its religious functions in a bigger and bigger form in view to demonstrate its strength to other communities. The use of Mandirs, Masjids, Deras, Gurudwaras and other religious places and celebration of religious festivals for spreading a particular brand of ‘religion’ has been a sad reality. Disputes over construction of religious places for worship have become common these days. Conversations from one religion to another are encouraged by resorting to unethical means. All these facts highlight the growing tendency towards religious fanaticism in India and a corresponding growing and increase in communal politics. Political leaders and organisations do not hesitate to use religion for getting a share in political power.
Poverty and Under-development
Unemployment, scarcity of essential commodities, mass poverty, ever-increasing population, regional imbalances, economic inequalities, economic backwardness, illiteracy, ignorance and corruption have also contributed to the growth of communalism. The unemployed youth is easily drawn by the politico-religious leaders towards religious fundamentalism and fanaticism. The emergence of strong organisations which are pro or opposed to the reservation of jobs for the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, has also been a source of communalism. Some scholars who have studied the causes of communal riots in Moradabad and Baroda have found out that difference in the economic status of persons belonging to Muslim and Hindu communties of these areas was responsible for communal riots. The continued socio-economic under development has been breeding communalism.
The Social causes : (Issue of Conversions)
Despite the fact of having lived together the Hindus and Muslims continued to be suspicious of each other. The Muslims continuously fear the threat of Hindu cultural invasion upon their culture and religion and hence resort to fundamentalism. In order to keep their numbers large, they do not completely accept the need for family welfare programmes and do not refrain from conversion of others to their religions. The Christians try to use conversion as a means to serve humanity while the Hindus regard it as an exercise for exploiting the poverty of the poor for securing conversions. And in this process communalism assumes a great role. The religious minorities justify conversions as a part of the right to the propagation of their religions, which stands accepted as the right to freedom of religion. Every Indian has the right and freedom to follow or not to follow any religion. He can change his religion at his will. However, when conversion from one religion to another religion is secured through unethical means, it becomes an evil. Such conversions, particularly when these are secured in a big way, invite strong reactions from the community whose members get converted.
Compulsions of Electoral Politics
The electoral politics in India has been becoming more and more competitive and expansive. The stakes have become very high for the parties or candidates contesting elections. Consequently, they never hesitate to use foul and fair means - creating communal tensions to secure more votes - for securing advantages in the elections. The party in power offers doles to the different sections of population and their associations and groups. It accepts communalist groups and grants them concessions for appeasing them. The opposition parties try to negate this by winning these groups through verbal support, promises and recognition of their interests. Compulsions of coalition politics have been giving a communal colour to Indian electoral politics. All this strengthens communalism during elections and in post-election days, communalism starts posing hindrances in the way of every new government.
This article on Causes of Communalism in India is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.