26 The ideology and practice of communalism in India

Narendra Kumar

Introduction:

In a democratic system, it is quite common that people use different methods for expressing solidarity and achieving political power. The social diversities and disparities in our country are understood in terms of the existence of many groups linked to religion. Tensions have prevailed for a long time among them due to suspicion, economic deprivation and social dissemination. Playing up these factors and pitting one group against another describes the politics of communalism. Regarding these nuances, Bipan Chandra says that communalism is a phenomenon where the majority and minority religious ideology and practices confirms the notion of ‘Our belief alone is true’ and ‘rest is untrue or incomplete’. In India, religion is the core weapon which creates the communal ideology with a different practice. Communalism is seen as existing primarily between Hindus, Muslims,Sikhs, and Christians. In contemporary India, “communalism” designates not only the conflicts between extremist religious communities, commentators for long have argued that politicians play an important role in creating communal tension and provoking violence (see for example Engineer 1984, 1989, 1995).1

Communalism, then, is a particular kind of politicization of religious identity, an ideology that seeks to promote conflict between religious communities. In the context of a multi-religious country, the phrase “religious nationalism” has come to acquire a similar meaning. In such a country, any attempt to see a religious community as a nation would mean sowing the seeds of antagonism against some other religions.2 In the context of ideological approach, we see that the pervasiveness of a communal ideology within society as an explanation for the occurrence of the communal violence. Bipan Chandra (1987:5), for example sees riots as a ‘bitter and virulent manifestation and consequence’ of a communal ideology and Jafferlot (2003a:2) argues that riots largely originates from a distorted idea like ideology of the ‘other’.3

This module deals with the ideology and practices of communalism in India. In this module, communalism as a part of ideology has been discussed with the notion of otherness. This essay further investigates the practices of communalism with the time and space and a particular kind of politicization of religious identity, an ideology that seeks to promote conflict between religious communities. It also investigates the relationship between religious revivalism and religious fundamentalism with hindutva ideology. This module also seeks to understand communalism with social, political and economic disparities.

What is communalism?

1  Ward Berenschot (2011), Riot Politics, Columbia University Press, New York, p.8

2   (http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/2087/17/17_conclusion%20.pdf

3   Berenschot Ward.(2011), Riot Politics, Columbia University Press, New York, p.23

Generally understood, communalism is rivalry kept and practiced by one community or religion towards another or each other. Bothering only about the well being of one’s own religion and viewing the welfare of another community as a threat is a common characteristic of communalism. In his book ‘social problems in India’ Ram Ahuja argues that “Communalism can be considered an ideology which states that society is divided into religious communities whose interests differ and are at times even opposed to each other. The antagonism practiced by members of one community against the people of other community and religion can be termed communalism. This antagonism goes to the extent of falsely accusing, harming and deliberately insulting a particular community and extends to looting, burning down the homes and shops of the helpless and the weak, dishonouring women and even killing persons.”4

In the words of Satish Sabarwal, “communalism in our sense means the channeling of personal sentiments and actions primarily with reference to the ascriptive group whose boundaries are determined by the accident of one’s birth.”5 In his book Gyanendra Pandey argues that “the opposition to each other’s of religious communities is commonly designated as communalism.”6 Many scholars hold the view that communalism is not essentially a product derived out of religious feelings; it is a form of politics also. Prabha Dixit in her book, ‘Communalism, a Struggle for Political Power’ states that: “Communalism in India is neither the reaction to anti communalism nor an outgrowth of religious and cultural differences but it is a triangular power struggle of the elite.”7

4  Ram Ahuja, Social Problems in India, Rawat Publications, Jaipur, 1992, p.104

5   Zenab Banu, Politics of Communalism , Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1989, p.2

6  Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in The Colonial North India,. Oxford University

Press, 1990, p. 6

7  Zenab Banu, Politics of Communalism , Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1989, p.18

According to Bipan Chandra “communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion, they have as a result, common social political and economic interests.”8

In a concluding remark we can say that communalism is an ideology which consists of three elements:-

1.      A belief that people who follow the same religion have common secular interests.

2.    A notion that, in a multi-religious society like India, these common secular interests of one religion is

dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the follower of another religion.

3.    The interests of the follower of the different religion or of different

‘communities’ are seen to be completely incompatible, antagonist and hostile. Communalism is political trade in religion.

Meaning of communalism and communal violence:

In seeking to explain the persistence of communal violence, Brass draws on a functionalist theory and argues that communal riots have functional utility and benefits for a wide range of groups and organizations in society, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other political organizations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He points out that the Hindu–Muslim divide and polarization, which is rooted in the discourse of communalism and militant Hindu nationalism, has been extremely valuable to the political fortunes of the BJP.9 In a Bourdieu sense, different societies have different norms but the ‘practice’ has importance to create the hegemony and domination.

8  Bipin Chandra, Communalism in Modern India, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1984, p.2

9  Paul. R. Brass . (2003) The Production of Hindu–Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Regarding these nuances we can say that communalism is a phenomenon where the majority and minority religious ideology and practices confirms the notion of ‘Our belief alone is true’ and ‘rest is untrue or incomplete’.

Therefore the construction of the ‘otherness’ (Paul Brass) perform the ideology of the communalism. In his book “communalism and communal violence in India” Asghar Ali Engineer states that “Communalism is a modern phenomenon and its fundamental causes are secular like competition for share in political power or government jobs. Religion is not its fundamental cause but an instrumental cause because it has great mobilizing power.”10

In other words he argue that one must distinguish between religious violence- the reason for which lay in sectarian and doctrinaire differences- and communal violence- the reason for which lay in conflict over controlling political power and economic resources between the elites of the two communities. It is precisely for this reason that communalism is born of secular issues and communal parties are led by, or communalism is promoted by, secular leaders. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Muslim league in the pre-partition period was led by M. A. Jinnah, a thoroughly westernized, even modernized Muslim and the chief ideologue of Hindu-Mahasabha happened to be a Savarkar who had a modern outlook and stood for reforming Hinduism for within. Neither the Muslim league nor Hindu-Mahasabha was led by a mullah or Shankara Charya. Communalism is all about secular issues without involving any religious sectarian doctrine. So the instrumentality of religion should not cause us any confusion as to the real nature of communalism.11 The thing is that communalism does not only

10Asghar Ali Engineer, Communalism in India – A Historical and Empirical Study, Vikas Publishing House,

New Delhi, 1995, p.52

11Asghar Ali Engineer, ‘Communalism and Communal violence in India’, Ajanta publications, Delhi, 1989. p.3 astonished with the religious sanction, it is also a practice to gain political and economic power.

In the context of macro-level, ‘communalism is the class nature of the society, on the one hand and the underdevelopment of the economy and scarcity of the resources, on the other. The underdevelopment of economy often results in its uneven development, both communities as well as region-wise and this uneven development throws up the problem of communal or regional identity, example like kokrajhar’.12

In the opinion of T.K. Oommen there are many dimensions of communalism and he suggests six important dimensions “assimilationalist, welfarist, retreatist, retaliatory, seperatist and secessionist. Assimilationist communalism is one in which small religion groups are assimilated/integrated into big religious groups. Such communalism claims that Scheduled tribes are Hindus or that Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists are covered under Hindu Marriage Act. Welfarist communalism aims at the welfare of a particular community, say improving living standards and providing for education and health; for example, Christian Associations are working for the betterment of Christians. Such communal mobilization aims at working only for the members of one’s own community. Retreatist communalism is one in which a small religious community keeps itself away from politics for example, Bahai community. Retaliatory communalism attempts to harm, hurt, and injure the members of other religious communities. Separatist communalism is one in which one religious group wants to maintain its cultural specificity and demands a separate territorial state within the country. Lastly secessionist communalism is one in which a religious community wants a separate identity and demands an independent state.

12ibid

A very small militant section of Sikh population demanding Khalistan is engaged in practicing this type of communalism.”13

According to Asghar there are two categories religious revivalism and religious fundamentalism as far as the Indian socio religious scene is concerned. In the context of religious revivalism he include the babas, yogis, and other religious gurus, who cash in on the growing sense of insecurity, urban tensions, and other stresses generated by the modern industrial pattern of life. Such religious frauds are rapidly multiplying in our society in urban as well as rural areas strengthening and promoting irrationalism. This irrationalism generates illusions and false consciousness among the masses. They propagate the ideology of dominant religious sanction in the indirect form.

In the second category i,e. religious fundamentalism he includes the movements like that of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and rise of Islamic fundamentalism. These movements have political aims and reflect the ideology through media. Here the religious revivalism has clearly directed political goals. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang dal, and Hindu Mahasabha seizing upon the opportunity provided by the conversions of few harijans to islam, launched in a calculated way, a propaganda offensive, intensifying communal conflict in the country. Many communal riots occur like Ahemdabad, Pune, Solapur, Gujarat, and Muzzafarnagar.14

The Genesis of Communalism:

13Ram Ahuja, Social Problems in India Rawat Publications, Jaipur, 1992, p.105

14  Asghar Ali Engineer, ‘Communalism and Communal violence in India’, Ajanta publications, Delhi, 1989. p.5

When we trace the genesis of communalism, we can see that it is not a very old phenomenon. Studies in this area prove that communalism was not developed or practiced as an ideology in ancient period or in the medieval periods. Ram Ahuja argues that “Communalism was not a remnant of the past-a hangover from the medieval period……

Communalism was a modern phenomenon that arouse as a result of British colonial impact and the response of several Indian social strata.”15 Gyanendra Pandey states that “Many have underlined the fact that communalism as we know it is a new phenomenon, far from being of hoary origins, or even of very long standing it is a development of the late colonial period arising concurrently with nationalism if not being brought forward as a counterweight to it.”16

Communalism began to spring up only in the colonial and capitalist society and reached its heights in the democratic society. As the basis of communalism lies in the competition for Modern achievement and urge for political supremacy, this cannot be traced in the ancient or medieval period. If we discuss about Indian society, we will find that, ancient India was united and no such communal feelings were there. People lived peacefully together; there was acceptance for each other’s culture and tradition. For example, Ashoka followed religious tolerance and focused mainly on Dhamma.17

In Medieval period, we have examples such as- Akbar, who was epitome of secular practices and believed in propagating such values by abolishing Jajhiya tax and starting of Din-I- Elahi and Ibadat Khana. Same acceptance for different cultures and tradition was practiced in

15Ram Ahuja, Social Problems in India Rawat Publications, Jaipur, 1992, p.105

16Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in the Colonial North India, Oxford University

Press , 1990, p.13

17 Bipin Chandra, Communalism in Modern India, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1984,

several kingdoms throughout India, because of which there was peace and harmony, barring few sectarian rulers like Aurangzeb, who was least tolerant for other religious practices. But, such motives were guided purely for their personal greed of power and wealth.18

Communalism in India is result of the emergence of modern politics, which has its roots in partition of Bengal in 1905 and feature of separate electorate under Government of India Act, 1909. Later, British government also appeased various communities through Communal award in 1932, which faced strong resistance from M.K. Gandhi and others. All these acts were done by the British government to appease Muslims and other communities, for their own political needs. This feeling of communalism has deepened since then, fragmenting the Indian society and being a cause of unrest (by Communal award colonial government mandated that consensus over any issue among different communities (i.e. Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs and others) is precondition for any further political development) Communal consciousness arose as a result of the transformation of Indian society under the impact of colonialism and the need to struggle against it.19

Bipin Chandra argues that communalism developed in certain areas and sections of society due to their failure to develop the new national consciousness. In other words, communalism was generated by the lack of deeper penetration of nationalist outlook and ideology.20

What happened in 1920 or thereabouts to bring about this great change when nationalism and communalism emerged as contrapuntal ideologies, intimately related to each other in mutual antagonism? According to Pandey, secular nationalism “contributed substantially”(p

18ibid

19ibid

20ibid

261) to the emergence of communalism because it resolutely side-stepped religion in the public sphere (p 260), and instead emphasised religious tolerance and a distancing from parochial ties (p 261). To recapitulate: In the first phase of colonialism the state encroached upon the terrain of the local community (p 159) and loosened those community bondings that held people together through generations. The damage was completed by the emergence of the secular nationalist movement whose insistence on steering clear of religious loyalties bred increasingly well articulated communal ideologies as “counter constructions” (p 261).21

The invasions of Muslim rulers were primarily not of religious motives. They fought wars and conquered parts of Indian sub continent because of their political ambitions rather than propagation of faiths.

Why communalism still persists and increasing in modern India?

Regarding the many definitions like communalism is above all an ideology, a false consciousness, a struggle for scarce resources, competition for jobs, and instruments of ruling class politics and so on. According to Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “that ideology which has emphasized as the social, political, and the economic unit the group of adherents of each religion and has emphasized the distinction even the antagonism, between such groups”.22

Regarding some questions like, Is communalism a static phenomenon, or it is something which has changed over a period of time? Is communalism of pre-Independence time the same as communalism today or is communalism in its myriad and complex expression the same in different parts of the country? We can see that communalism operates at different levels, ranging from individual relations and interest to the local, institutional and national politics and to communal riots.

21Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in the Colonial North India, Oxford University Press , 1990

22  Selected writing on Communalism, People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, May 1994. p. 66

K.M. Panikkar argues that, there is a whole range of social relations and politics over which communalism pervades today, this spread of communalism involves two interrelated central issues. First is the state of consciousness in the society and the second is communalism as an instrument of power, not purely for capturing state power, but operating in political, social, and economic domains and at almost all levels of social organization.23 That is communalism and communal mobilization is based on a perception that there are identities which are based on religious belonging. Such an identity can be manipulated for purpose of power at various levels. In Indian politics the main root of maximization of votes is communal mobilization on local level to urban level. In this context Panikkar says that political parties organized around communal ideologies and organized their programmes around communal goals.

For instance, the Muslim league during the pre-independence period had an Islamic state as its goal. The Hindu Mahasabha during the same period stood for Hindu Rashtra. They had explicit religious and communal goals. In contemporary India, the best example of this political formation is the BJP. We can see that BJP main plank is Hindu nationalism on the basis of hindutva ideology. They explicitly make their political programmed around a communal goal that is hindu nationalism. This aim is expressed in all that they do, beginning with the choice of the colour of their flag to the distribution of trisuls to Ramshila puja, to Advani’s rathyatra and to the instigation of riots.24

In his article ‘what is communalism today’ Pandey states that, the first major manifestation of that trend was the Hindu Kalash Yatra which was in fact the precursor of what the BJP, the VHP etc are doing today, viz the creation of a religious symbol around which Hindus could be rallied. By openly blessing and supporting the yatra, Indira Gandhi tried to identify herself with Hinduism. The most desperate and despicable political act of the Congress was Rajiv Gandhi’s election campaign with

23Ibid 66-67.

24  Ibid p.68

the ‘Rama Rajya’ speech at Ayodhya and the exploitation of Hindu sentiments about the Ramjanma bhoomi issue.25 The present day Hindu nationalist movement in India dates back to 1925, when the RSS was founded.

Its call for a revival of Hinduism combined with a fervent nationalist pride proved to be a popular and the organization grew rapidly.26 We are familiar with Golwalkar’s pitribhumi-punyabhumi qualification for a true national. Of course, muslims, and Christians, on account of their holy land being outside the boundaries of Bharatmata, are perpetual suspects. Ghar wapsi is an ideological project to produce the loyal citizen for the hindu nation-state. For the VHP, therefore a change of faith from hinduism to Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism, for that matter, doesn’t dismember the Hindu nation, but one to islam and Christianity does. In the context of ideological state apparatus, we want to draw the attention that RSS has open many schools hospitals, and charity work.

Commentator have often pointed Gujarat is considered to be a ‘laboratory of Hindutva’ because of the entrenchment of organization like the VHP and the RSS in Gujarat society in politics and in state institutions.27 To understand the actual embeddedness of the state we should not just focus on the symbolic ‘language of stateness’ that shapes the everyday experience of the state, we should also study that ‘blurred boundary’ between state and society as a ‘field of power’(Bourdieu 1977,1991) marked by intense competition for access to state resources. It is attached with the strategies of state institution and needy citizen.28

Violence seems most likely in areas where there are politicians are supported by local networks of extremist organizations and individual who specialize in creating and maintaining communal tensions. These networks according to Brass (1998, 2003), are ‘institutionalized riot

25Ibid p.68

26  Ward Berenschot (2011), Riot Politics, Columbia University Press, New York, p.24

27  Ibid, p.25

28  Ibid, p.10

systems’. As such actors keep communal tensions alive throughout the years through a steady infusion of communal ideology (Jafferlot 2003), a precipitating incident can easily be interpreted as an instance of broader communal conflict. If the activities of these networks are not kept in check, either by the police or by civic bodies large scale violence may develop (cited in Riot Politics, 2011, Ward Berenschot).29

Another boost for the morale of the rioters was the tacit- and sometimes very open support that the Hindu mobs received from the police. As the slogan ran at that time: ‘Andar ki bat hai, police hamare sath hai’.30 Both Brass and Wilkinson argue for a close relation between elections and the occurrence of violence. Wilkinson used an extensive dataset on incidences of rioting throughout India to point out that riots occur significantly more often in the six months before or after elections.31 We can take the example of Muzzaffarnagar riots before Lok Sabha election.

Economic and social disparities:

Economic tensions between the two communities lead to social tensions which can easily be turned into communal tension by exploiting certain situations on the occasion of religious festivals. Economic distrust between different strata of society has taken the shape of communal conflicts in many areas during the pre–independence period. Several communal riots are having a back ground of economic issues. The worst occurrence has taken place in Bombay, Surat, Ahmedabad, Malegaon, Aurangabad, Moradabad, Pune, Meerut, Aligarh, Jamshadpur, and Bhiwandi. Such commercial centers where Muslims have managed to come up economically. In the aftermath they were practically wiped out.

The behaviour of the society is based on the culture prevailing in that society. Social imbalance due to unequal growth of population can be pointed as a factor constructing the growth of communalism. In her

29Ibid, p.8

30  Ibid, p.165

31  Ibid, p.125

article ‘censuses, communalism, gender, and identity’ Charu Gupta explain that how the fertility rate checked with the domination in the context of population and control sexuality. She covered the form of communalism in the context of gender and sexuality. Hindu propagandists argue that a loss of a Hindu widow was not just the loss of one person, but also of many more. Moreover, these numbers were subtracted from the Hindu population, but added to the Muslims, doubling the loss to Hindus. One tract, Humara Bhishan Haas, a collection of articles reprinted from newspapers, dwelt on the catastrophic decline of Hindus due to growing conversion. Here we see a combination of the ‘negative’ portrayals of Muslims, stereotypes about the sexual desires of widows, as well as fears of agency of the widow.32

Judiciary and the communalization:

The role of judiciary in the matter of religious arena, we see that it holds the debate between secular and communal. In her article ‘religious freedom and state intervention’ Gurpreet Mahajan argues that, the judgments of the court are not free from biasness and perform the ideology and practice in the context of hindu ceremonial law. We can see that in the case of UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1956, Supreme Court has upheld the prohibition of cow slaughter on the grounds that the ban was in the interest of ‘public order’. The validity of this act was questioned from another perspective in M.H. Quereshi vs. state of Bihar (SCR 1959:629). Here petitioner claimed that the proposed ban on cow slaughter prevented him from observing the muslim community’s religious practice of sacrificing a cow on the occasion of Bakr-Id. In this case Supreme Court argues that sacrificing a cow is a optional practice for a muslim which mention in the Quran, because a person could easily sacrifice a goat. Since cows are valued as divine entities by hindus, so cow is not obligatory for muslims. Once

32 Charu Gupta. (2004). Censuses, Communalism, Gender and Identity: A Historical Perspective. EPW, 39 (39), 4302-04

again it was assumed that hurting the sentiments of any community would not be in the interest of ‘public order’.33 It is clear that the judgment performs the ideology of false consciousness and construction of otherness.

Conclusion:

Communalism has been a topic of detailed study for the past several years and many research works have been done in this field. One of the most important threats that India is facing, is the rising communalism in the context of ideology and practices. When we trace the genesis of communalism in India in the context of ideology and practice then we find that, as a process it contains religious pluralism and the contradictions between the faiths tend to create communal identities. Religion, when deliberately used as a tool for attaining political gains often nourished the growth of communalism. Politics of appeasement is another cause of development of communalism. The increased communal consciousness and the support received from some religious leaders make the phenomenon of communalism more venomous and dangerous. Violence is a very powerful instrument to inculcate a politically advantageous perception of the social world. In Bourdieu sense ‘the production of ideas about the social world is always in fact subordinated to the logic of the conquest of power, which is the logic of the mobilization of the greatest number for example hindutva ideologue.’ The majority community which alleges minority about their anti-national approach and the minority pointing about the insecurity

33Gurupreet Mahajan. (1998). Identities and rights: aspects of liberal democracy in India, OUP: New Delhi.

they are facing in their nation often collides and trigger tensions. In the words of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: “It is for the majority to realize its duty not to discriminate against minorities, the moment the majority loses the habit of discriminating against the minority, the minorities can have no ground to exist. They will vanish.” We can see that the vandalism of church by RSS bhakt, draw the phenomenon of consciousness of the ‘other’. We can observe that the continuity of the others and the politics of appeasement is the main root of communalism in India. And the role of the state is very narrow to vanish it. In the context of nationalism, according to Ernest Gellner there is no place of sentimentality (Marshal Mauss) in nationalism, while rationality, creativity and objectivity perform the characters of nationalism.

Reference bibliography:

• Ahuja, Ram (1992). Social problems in India. Jaipur: Rawat Publication.
• Berenschot, Ward. (2011). Riot Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Bourdieu, Pierre (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. London:Cambridge.
• __________.  (1991). Language  and Symbolic  power.  Cambridge:Polity Press.
• Brass, P. R. (2003). The Production of Hindu–Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
• Chandra, Bipin (1984). Communalism in Modern India. New Delhi:Vikas Publishing House.
• Engineer, A. A. (1989). ‘Communalism and Communal violence in India. Delhi: Ajanta Publications.
• Jaffrelot, C. (1996). The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics. London: Hurst & Co.
• Pandey, Gyanendra (1990). The Construction of Communalism in the Colonial North India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
• Selected writing on Communalism, People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, May 1994.

Articles:

• Pandey, Gyanendra. (2001). The ‘silent When majority’ Backs a Violent Minority. Economic and Political weekly, 37 (13), 1183-1185.
• Gupta, Charu (2004). Censuses, Communalism, Gender and Identity: A Historical Perspective. EPW, 39 (39), 4302-04.