SURENDRANATH COLLEGE

CU Roll no.- 192115-11-0171

CU Registration no.- 115-1211-1466-19
Semester- 03
Subject- Sociology Honours
Paper- CC6 ()
Year- 2021
Topic- Communalism and it’s effeCt on
society

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 Index

❖ Topic Page num

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❖ What is communalism
❖Relation between 3-4
communalism and
religion
❖ How religiousness 5-6
transformed into
communalism in free- india
❖ Effects of communalism in 7-9
society
❖ CONCLUSION 10

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WHAT IS COMMUNALISM?
COMMUNALISM is a situation when a particular community tries to promote
its own interest at the cost of other communities.A sense of loyalty of the
interest of one particular group ( religious, ethnic, etc ) rather than to society
as a whole can lead to extreme behaviour or violence towards others.

Communalism is political trade in religion. It is an ideology on which

communal politics is based. And communal violence are conjectural
consequences of communal ideology.

Relation between Religion and Communalism

This is an ongoing debate
among the scholars whether
religion is the main cause of
communalism. Often many
scholars maintain that main
'culprit' is religion and some
even go to the extent of
saying that if there is no
religion there will be no
communalism. Of course it is
quite hypothetical
formulation. Human beings
cannot live without religion or
some kind of ideology which
gives human life a meaning
and direction and whatever the nature of ideology or thought or value system
it creates its own 'other'. And some form of struggle starts between followers
of one or the other ideology.

Religion can be defined as a system of beliefs and values with

associated rituals to give these beliefs and values a concrete form. When
these beliefs and values are held in common and rituals are performed in
congregation it gives rise to a sense of commonality and a religious
community comes into existence. This community is also product of a pre-

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existing social structure and this social structure deeply influences the
religious community and its practices.
Thus all religions teach to be truthful,
compassionate, honest etc. It is this
commonality of values, which is often
asserted to promote communal
harmony. But, as pointed out above,
there are marked differences between
religions in terms of rituals and cultural
practices. Those who wish to promote
their agenda of creating conflict
between communities they assert
these ritual, social and cultural
differences. Over assertion on these
differences often lead to social or
political confrontation.

Thus the question of Ramjanambhoomi temple, basically a

religious issue, was cleverly exploited by the BJP politicians to
gather Hindu votes. Also, recently Narendra Modi, with the
active support of top BJP leaders, provoked communal violence,
mixing religious discourse with political one .Thus from this it can be
easily seen that it is politics which uses religion than religion
using the politics. Thus we can argue that in a democracy,
politicians exploit religious identity for political power. They, by
clever mix of religious beliefs and worldly interests, win the
hearts and minds of people. Here it is important to note that these
politicians who evolve this clever but highly explosive mix of
religion and political power, do not represent interests of entire
community but only its elite.

There are two alternatives for fighting communal politics. One alternative is
to evolve carefully a secular discourse around real developmental issues and
mobilise people around these secular issues. The other alternative is to use
religious discourse in a creative manner making religion an option for the
poor rather than for the powerful elite. Every religion has certain traditions,
which can be used for empowering the poor. The vested interests exploit
certain problematic traditions for their own interests .

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How religiousness transformed into communalism in Free-
India?
• Religiosity is the totality of
religious beliefs, values, practices
and rituals.
• Whereas communalism is an
aggressive political ideology
linked to religion.
• The communalism before
independence was rooted in the
‘divide and rule’ policy of the
British. They had fostered
communalism to weaken the
nationalist movement by forcing
religious rather than national
allegiance.
• After partition, the class divisions of our society and the backwardness
of our economy resulted in uneven development.
• As a result, some sections and individuals developed a sense of rivalry
vis-à-vis their counterparts in other communities.
• Such leaders began encouraging communal feelings to strengthen
their political support.
• When ordinary Indians
feel insecure because of
some adverse
circumstances, they often
tend to rely on religion, which
make them vulnerable to
political manipulation to
inflame communal passions.
• With economic
problems becoming
important, leaders began to
convert economic
insecurities like poverty unemployment, price rise etc. into caste and
communal ones. One such example is:

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• Example of Bhindaranwale & the communalisation of Sikhs
• Demolition of Babri Masjid

Thus,Religiosity keeps a
person peaceful and content,
whereas communalism
makes him agitated and
dissatisfied. For human
development and spiritual
regeneration in the modern
India, we should promote
the former and discourage
the latter.

Transformation of religiosity into communalism creates serious

obstacles to good governance, economic development and social
harmony of our country. Therefore, both the state and the society must
prevent any individual, organization or event that encourages such
process.

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EFFECT OF COMMUNALISM IN SOCIETY
The graph gives us
idea about the decadal
and regional pattern of
riots and people died.

Consequences of
communalism is well
known to all of us. With
killings in mass, the
real sufferers are the
poor, they lose their
house, their near and
dear ones, their lives,
their livelihood, etc. It
violates the human
rights from all
direction. Sometimes
children will lose their
parents and will
become orphan for life
time and nobody will
be there to look after
them.

Ghettoization and
refugee problem is the
other dimension of
communalism induced
violence, whether its
inter country or intra country. Sudden increase in violence against any
particular community causes mass exodus and stampede which in turn
kills many number of people. For example, this was seen in the case of
Bangalore in 2012, with respect to people from North eastern states,
which was stimulated by a rumour.

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Apart from having effect
on the society, it is also
a threat to Indian
constitutional values,
which promotes
Secularism and religious
tolerance. In that case,
citizens don’t fulfil their
fundamental duties
towards the nation. It
becomes a threat for the
unity and integrity of the
nation as a whole. It
promotes only the
feeling of hatred in all
directions, dividing the
society on communal
lines.

Other than these,

minorities are viewed
with suspicion by all,
including state
authorities like police,
para military forces,
army, intelligence
agencies, etc. There have been many instances when people from such
community have been harassed and detained and finally have been
released by court orders guilt free. For this, there is no provision of
compensation of such victims, about their livelihood in comes forgone,
against social stigmas and emotional trauma of the families.

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 Such things are set back for
the society and becomes
barrier for its development.
This is also one of the reason
which is keeping India still
under the status of
“developing nation” because,
such activities occurring
frequently do harm the
human resource and
economy of the country. And
then again it takes years for
the people and the affected
regions to come out the
traumas of such violence,
having deep impact on minds
of those who have faced it.
Whole life, they feel
emotionally broken and
insecure.

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CONCLUSION
Communal violence is
common now days
throughout the
world. Communal violence
and riots have also been
called non-State
conflict, violent civil or
minorities unrest, mass racial
violence, social or inter-
communal violence and
ethno-religious violence.

Violence between Buddhists

and the Muslim Rohingya,
inhabit Rakhine state which
stretches along most of Myanmar’s coast up to the Bay of Bengal and
borders the Chittagong province of Bangladesh, erupted in 2013. Such
violence in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, and
Pakistan causes violence in retaliation in India also. It also catalyses the
problem of refuges, as in case of Pakistani Hindus, etc. Sri Lanka is also
facing international critics and United Nations related to ethnic clashes
and action of government against minority Tamilians, which has direct
bearing on India and Sri Lanka relations and India’s internal security.

Communalism can be combated with the help of globalisation as a tool.

In the globalised world, all countries are becoming integrated and
dependent on each other. Movement of people from one place to other
is becoming very easy, in such conditions to avoid such potential
violence, governments are already promoting cultural exchanges
through shows, programs, heritage walk, cultural visit by students and
parliamentarians. Promoting learning of each other’s local language for
easy exchange of ideas. If all the countries cooperate with each other,
they can face and solve even the deadliest challenge of terrorism and
groups like Al-qaeda, ISIS,etc.

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Bibliography
To make this project I have taken source from the following-
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/
• https://www.countercurrents.org/
• https://www.toppr.com

Thank you!

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