essay on communalism
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The rising trend of communalism and the accompanying violence have created a feeling of insecurity among the religious minorities. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in particular, fear discrimination and confrontation in the days to come. This may just be a fear, but the nation cannot afford to let about one-fifth of the country’s population to fall victim to panic, suspicion and insecurity. The events between 1984 and 1999 in Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi give ample evidence and taste of the destructive outcome of the communal virus in its varied forms.
Religious minorities in India are protected by the Constitution which provides for justice, tolerance, equality and freedom. But in an age in which religious fundamentalism is getting transferred into religious bigotry, intolerance and narrow-mindedness, the notion of ‘Ram Rajya’, is not infrequently misinterpreted by the minorities, especially Muslims, to mean the rule of Lord Ram, i.e., Hindu rule. The presence of police in and near religious shrines to keep an eye on and check the hide-outs of terrorists (as in Amritsar in 1985 and in Kashmir in November 1993 and May 1995) is viewed as interference in religious faith.
Therefore, to prevent damage to the peace and integrity of the nation, there is need to analyse and debate the problem of communalism and communal violence. It has become absolutely important to define ‘communalism’. Also, it is equally pertinent to discover who is ‘communal’.
Communalism is an ideology which states that society is divided into religious communities whose interests differ and are at times even opposed to each other. The antagonism practised by the people of one community against the people of other community and religion can be termed ‘communalism’. This antagonism goes to the extent of falsely accusing, harming, and deliberately insulting a particular community and extends to looting, burning down the homes and shops of the helpless and the weak, dishonouring women, and even killing persons. ‘Communal persons’ are those who practise politics through religion.
Among leaders, those religious leaders are ‘communal’ who run their religious communities like business enterprises and institutions and raise the cries of “Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism or Christianity in danger”, the moment they find that donations into their holy ‘corporations’ have begun to dwindle, or their leadership has come to be challenged, or their ideology has been questioned.
Thus, ‘communal’ is not one who is ‘a man of religion’ but ‘one who practices politics by linking it with religion’. These power politicians are not good Hindus nor Good Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis or Buddhists. They can be viewed as dangerous political ‘scum’. For them, God and religion are merely instruments to be used to live luxuriously as the ‘king parasites’ of society and to attain political goals.
T.K. Oommen (1989) has suggested six dimensions of communalism assimilationist, welfarist, retreatist, retaliatory, separatist, and secessionist. Assimilationist communalism is one in which small religious groups are assimilated/integrated into a big religious group. Such communalism claims that Scheduled Tribes are Hindus, or that Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists are Hindus and they should be covered by the Hindu Marriage Act.
Welfarist communalism aims at the welfare of a particular community, say, improving living standard and providing for education and health of Christians by the Christian associations, or Parsi associations working for the uplift of the Parsis. Such communal mobilisation aims at working only for members of one’s own community. Retreatist communalism is one in which a small religious community keeps itself away from politics: for example, Bahai community, which forbids its members from participating in political activities.
Retaliatory communalism attempts to harm, hurt, and injure the members of other religious communities. Separatist communalism is one in which one religious or a cultural group wants to maintain its cultural specificity and demands a separate territorial state within the country, for example, the demand of Mizos and Nagas in North-East India or Bodos in Assam, or of Jharkhand tribals in Bihar, or of Gorkhas for Gorakhaland in West Bengal, or of hill people for Uttrakhand in Uttar Pradesh, or of Vidharbha in Maharashtra.
Lastly, secessionist communalism is one in which a religious community wants a separate political identity and demands an independent state. A very small militant section of Sikh population demanding Khalistan or some Muslim militants demanding independent Kashmir were engaged in practising this type of communalism. Of these six types of communalism, the last three create problems engendering agitations, communal riots, terrorism and insurgency.