Lecture: Nationalism and Communalism, Religion Politics and History in India, Louis Dumont, 1997
Keywords: Communalism, History, History of India, Louis Dumont, Nationalism, Politics
University of Delhi
Bachelor of Arts
Sociology of India
Reading to be covered: ‘Nationalism and Communalism’, in, Religion Politics and History in India, by Louis Dumont, 1997, Mouton Publishers, Paris, pp. 89-110.
Course Structure
Important points to be kept in mind while studying the article
Expected outcome
Lecture in detail with comment and clarification
Introduction
Relation Between Nationalism, Communalism and Politics
Communalism and Nation
Lasting Social Heterogeneity of the two Communities
Change in the Distribution and Nature of Power
The Separation Effect of ‘Revivalism’
The Undertones of Congress Nationalism, Britain
Clash of Culture and Faith
Important points to be kept in mind while studying the article
Try to understand the nature of nationalism and communalism in India
How the subject of communalism and nationalism is operating in India
How communalism and nationalism are related to religion.
Role of Congress
Expected Outcome
Students will be able to understand the nature of communalism and nationalism in India. How the idea of nationalism and communalism in Indian is affecting the social and political life.
Course Structure
Introduction
Dear students, please go through the article for detail description.
The article is discussing the social change in India, in relation to the nationalism, communalism and its brooder relations with the changing social values.
In Indian, the nationalism and communalism go patroller with the political process.
Relation Between Nationalism, Communalism and Politics
The nationalism and communalism are not only related to politics but this is the major debate in mainstreamed politics. These become part of the social and political structure.
These structure making a narrow distance between politics, society, nationalism and communalism. All debated are going parallel. The religion in India is not a subject of personal belief rather it is a matter of social display, debate and part of politics.
The communalism in India is not located only in a particular community rather in both two major religious groups that is Hindu and Muslims. This is existing from the pre-independent era. The creation of Pakistan was the result of communal polarization in India.
The communalism appears as a hybrid, or intermediary, perhaps a transitory phenomenon.
Communalism and Nation
Communalism in itself is ambiguous. It can finally appear either as a genuine transition to the nation or as an attempt on the part of religion to oppose the transformation by allowing for the external appearances of a modern state. It is a kind of political Janus, looking both backwards and forwards.
A sober assessment of the causes of the political division between Hindi and Muslim was offered by an Indian professor of Political Science, Beni Prasad.
Page No. 95 Please read the First Paragraph.
(1) Lasting Social Heterogeneity of the two Communities
Religion was not taken as constitutive of society. Both Hindu and Muslims are living in the Indian villages as well as the urban area. Both Hindi and Muslims are living with their values. However, sometimes they have the feeling that Muslim were the concurred India. The Hindus have the caste system and Muslim is considering as monolithic religion. But, this is also true that the Muslim to have the sects.
Both Hindi and Muslim have cultural rigidity and they do not want to leave it.
The case is sociologically illuminating. We learn that people who lived together for centuries do not really constitute a society if their values have not fused. We note that, contrary to what is often admitted, power does not automatically find its ‘expression; in terms of value, and that the coexistence was empirically accepted without being legitimized and was, therefore, together with the cultural symbiosis, at the mercy of a change of power.
(2) Change in the Distribution and Nature of Power
British conquest brought a change in power which struck the upper Muslim directly and indirectly. Either immediately, or later and progressively, they lost practically all their means of livelihood, along with political power itself. Muslim were thrown from their position of power and affluence, the Hindu me changes and moneymen were promoted to a powerful position. Also the British promoted the English language which replaced the Persian. These moves Muslim were replaced by the English educed person. After the introduction of English, the Muslim representation was declined from the administrative position. All these initiative deprived the Muslim form their earlier position.
(3) The Separation Effect of ‘Revivalism’
Later on, Muslim intellectuals thought that they should drop their religious rigidity, to get benefits from the British administration. They wanted to revive themselves, according to new satiation. Muslim also tried to adopt the western values and tradition to modernize them. They also tried to assimilate with Hindi and Hindi tradition.
(4) The Undertones of Congress Nationalism, Britain
The ideological basis of the national political movement, as laid out in the presiding century, is encompassed within a reaffirmation of traditional values. The tendency of many modern writers is to forget the value of traditional facts and to accuse the Muslim of having introduced religion into politics on their own account. Clearly the whole movement constituted by the movement is complementary in the sense that the attitudes of the greater and older body did determine in some measures those of the other, the more so as the majority could rely on numbers to solve certain question in practice, while the minority could not and had to be articulation on the same matter. Thus it is that the question of the place of religion in the Congress movement up to independence is forced upon us.
Book is discussing social reform and nationalist view of Tilak, Gokhle, Ranada, Gandhi Nehru on Page No. 103-05 please go through that.
However, this will be better to read this regarding understand the Tilak
Find the related book here-
https://www.amazon.in/Foundations-Tilaks-Nationalism-Parimala-Rao/dp/8125039198
The author is also discussing The Simon Commission and Communal Award. The commission denied that ‘if the communal representation was abolished communal tension would disappear’, and its Report added that true cause of Hindu-Muslim rivalry ‘is the struggle for political power and for the opportunities which political power confers.’
Clash of Culture and Faith
The author did not see Hindu Muslim violence as cultural and faith conflict.
In the end, the author is also discussing the Indian Pakistan patrician and role of Muslim League and other party and entity. The author also takes note of the position of Hindu Kind and Kingdom. However, the author too recognized that politically Pakistan is still an unstable country. (Please note that the author is saying about Pakistan during the writing of this article that is before the 1990s.)
Anil Kumar | Student of Life World
Stay Social ~ Stay Connected
Study with Anil
Lecture, Study Material, and More
Keep Visiting ~ Stay Curious
0 Comments