1. Introduction
2. Stages of Communalism
3. Reasons for the Growth of Communalism in India
3.1. Divide and Rule Policy of British
3.2. Communal Appeal of Political Parties and Organizations
3.3. Communal View of Indian History
3.4. Economic and Educational Backwardness of Indian Muslims
3.5. Stagnant Economy
3.6. Hindu Tinge in Nationalist Propaganda
3.7. Side-effects of Socio-Religious Reform Movements
4. Growth of Communalism in India
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Topic – Rise and Growth of Communalism (Notes)
Subject – Political Science
(Indian National Movement & Constitutional Development)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Communalism is basically an ideology on which communal politics is based.
Communalism believes that the people of different religions have different interests in political and economic matters. It is sometimes said to put the interests of the community above the interests of the individual. Communalism, in a broad sense, means a strong attachment to one’s own community. In popular discourse in India, it is understood as unhealthy attachment to one’s own religion.
However, it has turned to take a negative meaning where people start promoting the interests of one community over another. 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.
In ancient Indian society, people of different faiths coexisted peacefully. While religion was an important part of people’s lives, there was no communal ideology or communal politics. Along with the rise of nationalism, communalism too made its appearance around the end of the nineteenth century and posed the biggest threat to the unity of the Indian people and the national movement. It is not true that communalism was a remnant of, or survival from, the medieval period. Though religion was an important part of people’s lives and they did sometimes quarrel over religion, there was hardly any communal ideology or communal politics before the 1870s.
Some believe that a major factor in the growth of communalism was the existence of several religions in India. This is not so. It is not true that communalism must arise inevitably in a multi-religious society. Here we must distinguish between religion as a belief system, which people follow as a part of their personal belief, and the ideology of a religion-based socio-political identity, that is communalism. Religion is not the cause of communalism, nor is communalism inspired by religion. Religion comes into communalism to the extent that it serves politics arising in non-religious spheres. Communalism has been rightly described as political trade in religion. As a modern phenomenon, it arose as a result of British colonial impact and the response of Indian social strata.
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