Explain how communalism poses a great threat to a democracy
Answers
Communalism means that people of the same religion have common cultural, economic, political and social interests. Thus religion based communities form as the primary unit of a society. According to communal ideology, people of different religions have divergent interests and this can prove to be antagonistic. This often leads to communal tension. Moreover, in democracies, the political parties exploit the communal ideas and foster them to secure their selfish interests.
There are many different forms of communalism and they are threat to Indian democracy ;-
1. The common form of communailism is practised on everyday customarily beliefs. It can be in the form of religious prejudice, stereotypes of religious communities, supremacy of one religion over the other religion, as seen in our country. These beliefs are so common that we often fail to detect even when we believe in it.
2. It leads to a search for political dominance of religious community over others. It takes the form of majoritarian dominance for majority community, over minority community. It can take form of a desire to form a separate political unit.
3. The most frequent form of communalism is political enlistment on the religious guidelines. It involves the usage of sacred symbols, religious leaders, emotional appeal and creating fear in order to accumulate followers of one religious community in the political arena. It is materialized to gain advantage in electoral politics and it is very common in India. It often takes the form of communal violence, riots and massacre in our country. Our country has suffered many communal riots since its independence.