,%20and%20Qutubuddin%20Ansari%20(Right).jpg "Godhra Riots, 2002, Ashok Parmar (Left), and Qutubuddin Ansari (Right)")
Lecture and Explanation
Understanding Communalism in India
Key Words: Communalism in India, Communal Violence, Reason for the Communal Violence, British India, Bipin Chandra, Communal Violence Act 2005, Social Evils, Sociology for BA LLB
The Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, B.A. LL.B, Sociology - II (Legal System and Society), Paper Code: L 2002
Dear students, this is a slightly modified version of the PowerPoint Presentation which is used during the lecture. This modified version of the PPT is not a substitute for the lecture. The lecture was delivered comprehensively. This page will be updated to the full lecture later on.
Lecture: Communalism in India
Jawaharlal Nehru once described communalism as the Indian version of fascism. He said, that while all communalism is bad, we must remember that minority communalism is born out of fear, while majority communalism takes the form of political reaction to assert dominance. But he added: ‘There could be no compromise on the issue of communalism, Hindu communalism or Muslim communalism, as it is a challenge to Indian nationhood and Indian nationalism."
Quoted in Bipin Chandra (1928 - 2014), “India’s Struggle for Freedom” (Originally published: 1988)
Here Jawaharlal Nehru highlighted three things about Communalism in his statement:
Communalism is
An Indian Version of Fascism
Communalism is the Challenge of
Indian Nationhood, and
Nationalism
Basic Reason for the Rise of Communalism
Human Nature is to
Live in community
Community have commonality
Commonality has some common characteristics and goals
Every human has a “We-Feeling” (William Graham Sumner, USA, 1840 – 1910), and the strong we-feeling :
Lead feels that the goals & interests of the other community are different from ours.
It further leads to suspect and conspiracy theories.
Which ultimately leads to distrust within the communities.
KNOW MORE ABOUT We Feeling Here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4193817
https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/66017/1/Unit9.pdf
The community feeling or we feeling exists without boundary, even in imagination. Because “Everything you can imagine is real” — Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973).
This is brilliantly explained by Benedict Anderson (Born: 26 August 1936) in his book “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism” (Originally published: 1983).
Introduction
Identity forms an important aspect of the life of an individual or group in a society. In a diverse society, multiple factors shape identities. Such factors are culture, language, religion, customs, history, region, economy, etc. in shaping an identity, the numbers of these factors vary. Religion is also playing an important role in shaping identity.
What is Communalism?
Communalism is an ideology which shapes the vision of members of a community, formed based on common religion, about themselves, other religious communities, nationalism and the state.
Bipin Chandra and other in his book “India’s Struggle for Freedom” underlines that communal ideology consists of three elements.
First Element: The belief that people from similar religious communities have similar secular interests.
Second Element: People belonging to different religious communities do not have common secular interests.
Third Element: Relations between different religious communities are seen as mutually incompatible, hostile and antagonistic.
Communalism is linked to another concept, e.g. communal violence. Both are different but interrelated.
Communalism is a consciousness and when this consciousness gets expressed in terms of violence between two different religious communities it is called communal violence.
Different religious communities do not become communal on their own. Nor do their relations turn into communal violence automatically. It needs ignition,
Origin of Communalism in India: Are the British Government Responsible for this?
For many socio-political thinkers, communalism mainly started in India because of the colonial policies towards different communities, especially after the 1857 revolt.
Their divided policies promoted communalism. They promoted it through their writings and policies.
M. N. Srinivas also believes that Communalism started with Westernization in India. BUT HIS IDEA IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
The British Government promoted it through their writings and policies, for Example:
(A)
James Mill (1773 - 1836) in his book “The History of British India” (Originally published: 1817) argues that the history is India can be divided based on religion into three periods:
Ancient India which was ruled by Hindus and was a golden period,
In medieval the Muslim Invaders destroyed the glorious ancient Indian history, and
(3) In modern India denotes as end of the Mughal rule and establishment of the British rule in India.
(B)
In 1887 Viceroy Lord Dufferin and Lieutenant Governor A. Colvin, of Uttar Pradesh attacked the Congress for being anti-Muslim. After that many Muslims including Syed Ahmad Khan and others join the British Government. They thought that under British rule they would get more share in Government jobs, than the Hindu dominant Govt. (after independence).
(C)
Indian Council Act or Morley-Minto Act/Reform, 1909
British Govt. gave special privileges to the Muslims in the electorate, which led further gap between the two communities. Separate electorate was a political manifestation of communal divide.
(D)
Like the Communal Award British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald on 16 August 1932 gave electoral representation to the depressed classes and minorities.
Communalism and Media in Post Independent India
Changing the Public Sphere and the Role of Media. Nowadays hate speech is spread by using the media, especially social media, and media trail justice.
Traditional Media (Print)
New Age Media (Radio, TV, Internet)
Social Media
Media Trail (Justice Trail by the Media)
Ekta Chappal Shop
In India the communal violence is not bracking own its onwn, rather it is ignited. The iconinc face off During the Gujrat Violnce, 2022, later meet together. Here you can read the news item that they are coming from the pooer social and economic background, but fought for their own religion.
RELATED NEWS ITEM
Communal Vilence Bill, 2005
In 2005, the Governrmtn of India tried to bring law about the Communal Violence in India, but they were not successed, because of opposition from the opposition party.
The draft of “The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005” can be found here:
https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/CommunalViolence.pdf
FOR HIGHER STUDY about the COMMUNALISM Please Visit Here:
https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/54015/1/Unit-14.pdf
https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/_/jlDjbnKqtHIC?hl=&gbpv=1
https://www.epw.in/journal/1970/19/review-uncategorised/communalism-and-writing-indian-history.html (Paid Version)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26979096 (Paid Version)
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