Causes for Growth of Communalism in India

The following are the factors responsible for the growth of communalism in India:

Communal Appeal of Political Parties and Organizations

At the time of elections, the political parties and organizations make an appeal to the people on communal lines to garner their support and keep their communal feelings alive. They find the appeal in terms of communal lines more paying in terms of votes.  In many instances, the communal riots are often politically motivated. These are pre-planned and most of the times are preceded by almost identical incidents which rouse religious sentiments among the people.

Communal view of Indian history

British Historians introduced a communal and distorted view of ancient and medieval history and were responsible for the growth of communalism. For example, James Mill in the early 19th century labelled the ancient period of Indian history as Hindu period and the medieval period as the Muslim period. Such identification of the polity with religion was followed by many and was taught in schools and colleges. This divided the historians also in two categories:

• Historians with Hindu communal tinge claimed that Indian society and culture in ancient times under Hindu rulers had reached ideal heights but fell into permanent decay under the Muslim rulers.
• Historians influenced with Muslim communalism labelled the rule of Muslim rulers as the ‘golden age of Islamic achievement’ in West Asia and hailed their cultural achievements. They glorified the Muslim rulers including the religious bigots like Aurangzeb.

Economic and Educational Backwardness of Indian Muslims

As a by-product of colonialism, colonial India was characterised by the lack of modern institutions of education and health. This resulted in competition and nepotism. For the Muslims, the competition was primarily with the Hindus. From the beginning, Hindus dominated the colonial services as they easily adapted to the colonial structure. On the other hand, the British colonial government viewed the Muslims with suspicion because of the 1857 revolt and hence generously patronised the Hindus. These benefits fuelled communalism and began to give validity to communal politics. In fact, it resulted in resentment in Muslims in late 19th century. Later, the Muslims under Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan formed a pressure group to pressurize the colonial government to give concessions to Muslims as a separate community.

Historian Bipan Chandra argues that until 1937 communal politics in India was revolving around government jobs, seats in legislative councils, municipal bodies, etc.

In many instances, the religious distinction between communities coincided with social and class distinctions resulting in communal disharmony. As a matter of fact, the agrarian conflicts in the pre-independence period did not assume communal tinge until 20^th century. There was struggle between the upper classes of different communities for power, privileges and economic gain. For instance, in the Western Punjab, Muslim landlords opposed Hindu money lenders and in eastern Bengal there was clash between the Muslim jotedars and Hindu zamindars. Subsequently, communalism evolved as a weapon in the hands of the upper classes and political forces.

Stagnant Economy

The stagnant economy of India devoid of any development was also an important factor in the growth of communalism in India. The traditional occupational pattern of the Hindus and the Muslims were different. As agriculture became stagnant and later on with the spread of education among peasants, a new middle class emerged in the society. The spread of industries altered the occupational pattern making both the communities to compete against each other. This was exploited by communalist elements. Communalism grew as a middle-class question par excellence. The main social base for communalism was the middle-class people. However, even in 1930s and 1940s many middle-class individuals remained on the whole free of communalism.

On the eve of partition of India in 1947, while the Aristocratic Muslims and lower-class Muslims chose to stay back in India, the educated Muslims migrated to Pakistan for want of economic opportunities. However, later on with the introduction of Zamindari Abolition Act, the aristocratic Muslims lost the control over their land and property. This made the Muslims in India to fight for their survival.

Divide and Rule Policy of British

The British fuelled communal sentiments and divided the Indian society for their political gains. In colonial India, the official patronages for communal biases were very common. Communal demands like separate electorates were accepted and thus, they helped in politically strengthening communal organizations. The colonial rulers showed extreme tolerance towards communal organizations and leaders and did not care to crush the communal riots.

Communalism was effectively used by the British to weaken the growing nationalism and national movement in the country. In fact, Hindu-Muslim disunity was sighted as a reason for the continuation of colonial rule in India.

Hindu Tinge in Nationalist Propaganda

During the national movement, strong Hindu religious elements started to introduce Hindu religious elements in to the nationalist propagandas. For instance, Bal Gangadha Tilak used the Ganesh pooja and Shivaji Mahaotsav to propagate nationalism. Incidentally, association with god Ganesh and shivaji was used as a tool by the communal Muslims to alert Muslims. This was also a reason behind non-participation of Muslims in large numbers in Indian National Congress till 1919. In fact, in the early decades, only about 8-9% of the members of the Indian National Congress were Muslims. Similarly, the agitation against partition of Bengal began with people taking dips in the Ganges. Also, prominent personalities like Bankim Chandra Chatterjea often cited Muslims as foreigners in their writings. All these incidents played with the emotions of the Muslims and alienated them from the Hindus.

Integration among Minority Groups

The integration amongst the minority groups due to the perceived lack of security has united them to work towards their common goal.

Cultural-historical Explanation

Historically and culturally, Hindus and Muslims are heterogeneous groups. The pattern of interaction and relation between the two communities underwent change before and during the British rule. The relative backwardness of the Muslims and their failure to benefit from the socio-cultural reforms of 19^th century made them to view Hindus as competitors and aspire for political dominance.

Other Factors

• The policy of minority appeasement practised by the Indian National Congress and other political parties for decades.
• Some media like newspaper, books, literature have communal tinge and spread religious sentiments among the people.
• Movements of conversion and re-conversion like the Ghar wapsi programme. Religious conversions results in communal tensions. In some instances, the conversions are carried out in a forcible manner and sometimes by means of temptations also.
• Issues like interreligious marriages (Example: Love Jihad) & religious sentiments (cow slaughter and other related issues).
• Aggressive Hindu Chauvinism followed by few and the relative isolationism found among the Muslims.
• Partisan politics followed by the political parties often tend to keep the partisan political interests above the national interests.
• Growing discontent among the Hindus. Hindus are of the view that due to the ‘vote-bank politics’ of the minority community, their interests and the larger national interests are sacrificed by the political parties.

Why Communalism still persists in India?

Since independence India has been trying to build a nation based on secularism. But it has not been able to do so due to a plethora of reasons. A few of these reasons have been discussed in the following paragraphs. Overall the reasons can be classified under four categories:

• Religious,
• Political,
• Socio-economic, and
• International

Absence of Uniform Civil Code

The constitution of India gives the whole minorities fundamental rights under Article 28, 29 and 30. These articles grant the minorities to manage their educational institutions and conserve their own culture. But these individual rights are increasingly replaced by the personal laws drafted by the personal law boards of these communities. In some cases, these individual rights were also misused like the one related to the management of educational institutions. This has caused resentment among the majority communities. Among the minorities also, there is a resentment against such personal laws. There is a widespread call for Uniform civil code. The constitution of India in Article 44 (Directive principle of State Policy) has mentioned about the Uniform civil code. In the absence of uniform civil code there exists a general perception that all communities have divergent and contradictory interests.

Religious Fundamentalism

In a country like India with the presence of different religious communities, religious fundamentalism causes confrontation and riots. Fundamentalists do not have necessary tolerance to accept the beliefs and practices of different faiths.

Political Reasons

It has to be remembered that the politics was the main reason behind the painful partition of India in 1947. In Independent India also, for the sake of vote bank, the political parties indulge in the policy of appeasement, selection of candidates on the basis of community, caste and hence flaring up religious sentiments of the people. This practice has resulted in many adverse results.

For example, when the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the Shah Bano case, many Muslims reacted aggressively as the court permitted a Muslim divorcee, Shah Bano to have maintenance in excess, whereas the Shari’ah laws provides maintenance only for a period of three months post-divorce. The union government of the time under Rajiv Gandhi passed the Muslim Women’s Act in 1986 to counter the judgment pronounced in the Shah Bano case.

Socio-economic Reasons

Though, in the country, the socio-economic conditions of people have largely improved after 1991 economic reforms, there are still many challenges that remain unaddressed, which of late has become a threat for the diversity of Indian society. Population, Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment has created unhealthy competition among communities.

Role of Foreign Forces

Role of foreign forces (including non-state actors) have also a role in worsening the problem of communalism in the country. These forces are instigating communal activities and communal riots in India. The following are the main reasons for the involvement of such foreign forces in instigating communalism in India:

• They want to create an atmosphere of instability and make the country socially weak,
• They want to gain sympathy from India’s minority communities,
• To weaken the economic structure and economic development of the country,
• To cause disturbances in other countries to conceal their own incompetence.

Negative Effect of Media

Untrue events, abetted by the media also have a role to play in every major communal riots happening in the country. In some instances, the vernacular newspapers tend to disseminate false news as “news”. For example, in 1969, during the riots in Ahmedabad, the local newspapers published false reports of attacks on Hindu temples.

Other Factors

Some scholars believe that religious fundamentalism in India has its beginnings in Jawaharlal Nehru’s less effective mechanics of education and science. First and foremost, the partition of India had deeply damaged the Hindu psyche. Secondly, the Hindu-Muslim economic competition further fuelled communalism.

Others relate the communal conflicts in modern India with that of the electoral politics in the post-independence period. According to them, communal conflicts are essentially associated with the struggle for power and political power.