communalism

Communalism, as defined by Bipan Chandra, is a belief that in India Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians form distinct and different communities which are independent and separately structured. These independent communities have their own independent interests and it is inevitable that they are having conflicting interest. Because which part of resource should be given to which community is the matter of priority both from the point of providing affirmative action and from the communal angle and this creates tension among the existing groups in society. As one set of people gets the benefits at the cost of other add hostilities towards other group.

Bloomsbury History and Method: Key Concepts, 2022

Social scientists and historians use “communalism” in two different, almost opposite ways. Some meanings are positive, stressing cooperation, for example, systems of communal ownership or theories of social organization featuring communes or communities. Others are negative, stressing antagonism, for example, hostile competition between members of different communities or conflict, sometimes violent, involving members of different communities. This article is concerned with the second, antagonistic sort of communalism. A general definition of communalism in the negative sense is “political assertiveness of groups” that stand apart from society as a whole (Melson and Wolpe 1970: 1112). Such assertiveness is found in many parts of the world but is particularly salient in the countries of South Asia. This article focuses on India and other South Asian countries but also looks at other regions. In South Asia regularly, and in other regions frequently, communalism refers to conflict between members of different religious communities. Religious communalism is similar to, and sometimes overlaps with, other forms of prejudice-based group conflict such as sectarianism, ethnicism, casteism, tribalism, and racism. “Sectarianism” is sometimes used interchangeably with “communalism” but it refers, properly speaking, to conflicts between sects of one religion rather than different religions. South Asian communalism took shape in the colonial environment of British India. It played a determinative role in the early-twentieth-century independence movement and helped bring about the partition of British India into the separate states of India, Pakistan, and (later) Bangladesh. In twenty-first-century India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, “communalism” is a euphemistic code word for conflict between members of different religions, in particular Hindus and Muslims, but also Hindus or Muslims and Sikhs. In Sri Lanka and Myanmar it is used to describe conflict between Buddhists and Hindus, Muslims, or Christians. Communalism remains a major disruptive force in the political and social life of all these countries.

A variety of interpretations were advanced regarding communalism/communitarianism and its dimensions in Modern India over the past several decades. Similarly, various reasons have been advanced in an effort to understand its origins and growth. This essay shall look at the various theories in detail.

When religion is understood as a concrete organization which determines the entire life of its followers, it becomes a source of conflict and violence. But there is a more basic aspect of religion in the form of faith and experience which can never be a source of hate and violence. This implies a distinction between the essential and peripheral aspects of religion. Also, if religion is asserted to be the exclusive criterion of a people's identity, it causes severe rift between various religious groups, called 'communities', in a plural society like India's. The conception of 'community' in India is flawed as it makes religion as the exclusive basis of a people's identity, and does not take into cognizance several other factors which condition the identity and secular interests of a person or group of persons. This approach results in the phenomena of communalism and conflict. If we emphasize other bonds between people, as language, local culture and shared economic interests, we would be both nearer the lived reality and also able to provide a firmer foundation for a shared national life and culture.

2015

It has become part of the Indian commonsense to regard “communalism” as simply another term for “religious intolerance”. Scholars seem to treat it as more or less a historical accident that this special term came to be coined in India for the phenomenon of religious antagonism. This essay proposes that the British did not see “communalism” in the same way as the religious intolerance they were familiar with in Europe. This becomes clear on considering that the British, no strangers to a history of religious antagonism and intolerance themselves, never saw the solutions drawn in Britain as being applicable in India. In fact, most of them believed (a) that “communalism” was a peculiarly Indian problem, one that did not have a parallel in the West and (b) that India already had toleration, the solution to religious intolerance in the West. But, communalism was still a major problem in India. How does one reconcile these seemingly contradictory positions? Therefore, before one begins to assess how British conceptions of community have impacted India, one must excavate what those conceptions were and why they arose.

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 1997

CONFLICT BETWEEN GROUPS DISTINGUISHED BY RELIGIOUS MEMBERSHIP-'communalism'as it is known locally-is one of India's most persistent social problems. Hundreds of studies have been published describing and attempting to explain various aspects of Indian communalism. Most of these have been written by historians, though in recent years anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists have also turned their attention to the problem. 1 Thus far, historians have made comparatively little use of the work of ...

Abstract Communalism is one of the great threats in Indian stability, one side it is consider for the love and respect for one's community, on the other side; it acquired the symbol of derogatory attitude towards the other community, based on intolerance and almost verging abhorrence of being violence. Earlier this had happened in India; due to the sudden impression of various socioeconomic and religious forces happened in India, as well as the role of British Empire in India. The nature of this ideology was changing from time to time. After partition of India, this moved on surface more and more and it was understood as a conflict and hatred between the India's two major communities Hindus and Muslims. For the sake of power politics many political parties used religions as their target and also started moblising one community against the other for considering their narrow political interests.