Question

The concept of nationalism and national intergration are inter connected and interrelated. Analyse the statement on the basic of your experience and understanding.

Answer 1

Apparently, communalism and national integration do not co-exist. The policy of communal award, was introduced by the British to divide Muslims and Hindus so that they remained a divided house against the Raj. The British instigated the Muslims to make a demand for a separate state for Muslims. The Raj was able to create cleavages between the two communities by exaggerating linguistic, regional, cultural and historical differences. Alienation and hostility between Hindus and Muslims were created by the British rulers. To begin with, the British did not treat the Muslims at par with the Hindus, and subsequently the Raj made the Muslims aware of their economic backwardness and the ascendancy of the Hindus in various fields. British education also touched only a small minority of the Muslims. Thus, the British rule sowed the seeds of the unequal development of the two communities, hence disinte­gration. Communal representation in legislatures under various legal reforms further strengthened alienation of the Muslims from the Hindus and increased hostility The formation of Pakistan in 1947, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, after large-scale communal bloodshed, was not the end of the communal problem. Even after 1947, Hindus and Muslims in India have been at loggerheads from time to time even on the slightest provocation from either side Ahmedabad, Bhiwandi, Ranchi, Aligarh, Meerut, Surat and several other towns have witnessed situations of communal disharmony m the recent years. Entire Gujarat was engulfed in communal violence after the Godhara incidence in 2002. In the aftermath of assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, riots against Sikhs were a worst black spot in post-independent India. One obvious implication of the term national integration’ is that people belonging to a society share ideas and aspirations, emotional bonds and values In the context of the newly independent nations, Gunnar Myrdal (1968) writes “People must have a conception of the nation as a whole and attach positive valua­tions to this idea (nationalism) before they can feel that national independence and national consolidation are goals worth striving for and that all the other ‘modernization ideals can only be realised in the setting of an independent and consolidated nation-state”. Thus, for Myrdal, national integration is the equivalent of nationalism, that is, a feeling of nation against colonialism, and after achieving independence a feeling against communalism, linguism, regionalism and other disintegrative forces. Myrdal looks at national integration basically as a political phenomenon, but he relates it to planning for development and realisation of the ‘modernization ideals’ (change for betterment of India). He writes: “Nationalism, therefore, is commonly seen as a force for good by all those in the intellectual elite who are bent on planning policies aimed at development. To them, fostering nation­alism will provide the means of breaking down inhibitions and obstacles.”