Politics when organized through premeditated ‘vote banks’ leads to Political leaders and sometimes even Political Parties promise narrow communitarian gains if voted to power. Modern societies having a cosmopolitan character due to differences in race, religion and mother-tongue are sometimes polarized by portraying social differences as economic or political hegemonies of the perceived outsider community. Such type of community mobilization requires a community oriented rhetoric, which is based on Religion (sometimes also Caste) in India. In West, similar inflammatory propaganda is provided for mass consumption on the basis of race, ethnicity and only recently nationality.
Communalism is a specific type of Communitarianism in which the term community is used in a very vague and wide sense of the word. For instance, a Hindu boy living in Bihar will have more in common with a Muslim boy living in Bihar rather than a Hindu Boy from Kerala or Manipur. ‘Make enemies out of your neighbors in order to have friends in distant places’ isn’t a sound strategy [as can be seen from Indo Pak relations and both claiming support for their country by the US]. Religion can be said to constitute a community but not a cogent comprehensive one. Saying that Hindus of the world are a community is equivalent to saying Humanity as a whole is a community. Hence Hindus and Muslims together have a better chance at building communities than Hindus alone or Muslims alone.
Communalism in India thrives due to the political dividends it offers. Ever since the 19th century, British have kept the Indian Society dissected on the lines of religion in tune with their policy of divide and rule. It was done to weaken the possibilities of a Unified National Uprising, and to a large extent they succeeded in dividing the Nationalist thought and Nationalism on communal lines. The fallout of which is still exploited by proponents of radical – extremist ideologies to stoke communal passions and gain votes out of it. The context and intent of communalism have evolved through time but its impacts on the society still remain the same. The wounds of partition are scratched time and again to convey a highly contentious idea that India’s failings as a Nation can be attributed to a religious bias or appeasement of a particular religious community. The traction gained by the ideologies of Hindutva and Islamic Extremism in recent times has further compounded the problem. These ideologies stoke the fires that take decades of peace and reconstruction to douse out. In India we see a host of communal tinderboxes of cities like Aligarh, Ayodhya, Ahmedabad, Moradabad, etc where communal tensions are pperpetually kept simmering to suit political interests and inter community dialogue is almost always marked with hostility.
The spirit of secularism embodied in the Constitution is sometimes compromised as State finds itself on the wrong side of the conflict. The individual attitudes affect institutional imperatives, emboldened by politicization of the police and bureaucracy. It is pertinent to note that Indian idea of secularism emerged as a reaction to communal tensions going on in the country during the partition. Still the sporadic failings of this constitutional ideal remind us that it is upto the people of this country to make Constitutional ideals a reality on the ground, for when left for state to implement, these ideals become politicized hollow securities of progress.
The need of the hour is to ensure inter-community dialogue of peace, harmony and constructive progressivism in tune with the history of our civilization. This would require reducing the credibility of religious leaders with political overtones and political leaders with religious undertones through mass awareness campaigns and positive propaganda. A vibrant multifaceted program for National Integration through collecting and disseminating spiritual, cultural and scientific traditional knowledge from various states of India can do wonders by not only highlighting the diversity of this country, but bringing it into our living spaces.
