Communalism

The first principle

Communalism is the belief that people who follow the same religion share common secular interests, that is, political, economic and social interests, and that these interests differ from and even oppose those of other religious groups. Faith is personal and concerned with the sacred; communalism takes religious identity and uses it to claim power, jobs and territory against another community. Once that distinction is clear, it becomes easy to see why deeply religious societies can be peaceful and why communal conflict rises and falls with politics and economics rather than with piety.

The core

Bipan Chandra's three stages

• In Communalism in Modern India (1984), the historian Bipan Chandra described communalism as an ideology that grows in three stages. In communal nationalism, people assume that followers of one religion share secular interests. In liberal communalism, they assume that these interests differ from those of other religions, though they still accept a common nation. In extreme communalism, they see the interests as hostile and incompatible, and the language turns to fear, threat and hatred.
• The key point is that every later stage rests on the first assumption, which Bipan Chandra called false, so the best place to stop communalism is at the first stage, before it hardens.

Religiosity and communalism

• Religiosity is the intensity of personal faith and practice: prayer, pilgrimage, fasting and festivals. A religious person can respect other faiths, and India's Bhakti and Sufi traditions show deep faith alongside openness.
• Communalism is a political ideology that uses religion as a marker of group interest. The shift happens when faith is mobilised for worldly ends, when the other community is defined as a rival, and when symbols of worship become symbols of territory.
• An example from independent India. The dispute over the site in Ayodhya was for decades a matter of local faith and of civil litigation that had begun in the nineteenth century. In the 1980s it became the centre of mass political mobilisation, which led to the demolition of the mosque on 6 December 1992 and to riots in several cities, including Mumbai in 1992 to 93. The Supreme Court settled the title dispute in M Siddiq v Mahant Suresh Das (November 2019). The Shah Bano controversy (1985 to 1986) similarly turned a maintenance case into a question of community identity.

Dimensions

• Political. Communal mobilisation can consolidate votes, which gives parties and leaders an incentive to polarise, especially near elections.
• Economic. Competition for jobs, trade and land, sometimes along community lines, supplies grievances that communal leaders can use.
• Social. Segregated neighbourhoods let rumours spread unchecked.
• Administrative. Delayed police response, biased policing and weak prosecution allow tension to become riot and riot to go unpunished.

In practice

Power struggle or relative deprivation?

• Power struggle. Here communalism is a tool of elites competing for power. Separate electorates from 1909 and the bargaining before 1947 turned religious communities into political blocs, and Partition followed. The political scientist Steven Wilkinson (Votes and Violence, 2004) found that riots are more likely before closely fought elections, and Paul Brass described an "institutionalised riot system" of local actors who keep tension alive for political ends. The violence against Sikhs in Delhi after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, examined by the Nanavati Commission (2005), and the Muzaffarnagar violence of 2013, which displaced tens of thousands of people, are often cited in this framework.
• Relative deprivation. Here communalism grows from a group's sense that it is falling behind others, or that another group is gaining unfairly. The Sachar Committee (2006) documented low Muslim representation in public employment and education, which some read as fuelling a sense of exclusion, while others point to majority communities that feel overlooked by policies they see as favouring minorities. Commercial rivalry in towns where communities compete in the same trades has also been linked by scholars to riots.
• Both together. Most episodes mix the two. Deprivation supplies the grievance, and power struggle supplies the organisation and the trigger. The violence in Gujarat in 2002, after the burning of a train coach at Godhra, and in North East Delhi in February 2020, amid protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, show how a trigger, existing tension and mobilisation combine.
• Why some cities stay peaceful. Ashutosh Varshney (Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life, 2002) found that riots were concentrated in a small number of cities, and that cities with strong associational ties across communities, such as business associations, trade unions and mixed clubs, contained tension better than cities where communities lived and worked apart.

The post liberal economy and identity

• Insecurity and competition. Growth after 1991 has been uneven and largely informal, so many people face insecure work with little welfare, and insecurity pushes people towards the support of caste and religious networks.
• Migration. Workers who move to cities meet other communities as competitors for jobs, rooms and contracts, and segregated settlements form.
• Identity markets. Religious television, pilgrimage tourism and online groups sell identity as a product and make it more public.
• Social media. Cheap data and messaging apps spread rumours faster than the police can respond; a series of lynchings in 2017 and 2018 were triggered by false messages about child lifting and cattle.
• The counter view. The same economy builds ties of trade and employment across communities, so liberalisation sharpens identity in some settings and softens it in others.

Data

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 272 cases of communal and religious rioting in 2022, down from 857 in 2020.

Laws, institutions and reports

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. Section 196 (formerly Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code) punishes promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, language or place of birth; Section 299 (formerly 295A) punishes deliberate acts that outrage religious feelings; and Section 103(2) makes murder by a group of five or more on grounds such as religion or caste a distinct offence, which addresses mob lynching.
• Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. Freezes the religious character of places of worship as it stood on 15 August 1947, except the Ayodhya site; challenges to it are pending, and in December 2024 the Supreme Court told courts not to register fresh suits or pass effective orders in such disputes until it decides.
• National Integration Council (1961). A forum of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and party leaders that meets irregularly (it last met in September 2013).
• National Commission for Minorities (statutory, 1992 Act). Monitors safeguards for the six notified minorities.
• Communal Violence Bill draft (2011). Prepared by the National Advisory Council; it was never enacted, as several states objected that it intruded on their powers over public order.
• Second Administrative Reforms Commission (Second ARC), Fifth Report on Public Order (2007). Recommended police reform, accountability of officers for failure to prevent riots and community peace committees.
• **Tehseen S Poonawalla v Union of India (2018).** Issued preventive, remedial and punitive guidelines against lynching, including a nodal officer in each district and fast track trials, and asked Parliament to make a separate law.

Unity in diversity despite communalism

Communal violence is real and recurrent, yet it is concentrated in a few places and moments, while most Indians live alongside other faiths in shared markets, workplaces, festivals and elections. Constitutional rights, independent courts and regular elections give grievances a legal outlet, and the survival of a plural democracy across seven decades is the strongest evidence that diversity has not broken unity, though it does require constant care.

Issues and way forward

• Delayed policing and low conviction. Riots spread because police respond late and cases collapse; police reforms as directed in Prakash Singh v Union of India (2006) and accountability recommended by the Second ARC are the remedy.
• Misinformation. Rumours travel faster than official denials; fact checking units, platform accountability under the Information Technology Rules, 2021 and digital literacy can slow them.
• Segregation. Separate neighbourhoods prevent everyday contact; mixed housing, common schools and civic associations build the ties that contain violence.
• Unequal development. Grievances grow where communities lag; the Sachar Committee recommended an Equal Opportunity Commission and better data on deprivation for all groups.
• Political incentives. Polarisation pays electorally; strict enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct and of hate speech law against all offenders, without selectivity, reduces the reward.

Common confusions

• Communalism and religiosity. Religiosity is faith; communalism is a political ideology built on religious identity.
• Hate speech and offending sentiment. BNS Section 196 deals with promoting enmity between groups, while Section 299 deals with deliberate insult to religious beliefs.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: communal nationalism, liberal communalism, extreme communalism, religiosity, power struggle, relative deprivation, institutionalised riot system, civic engagement, identity markets, misinformation, mob lynching, BNS Section 196, Places of Worship Act.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction (data): The Sachar Committee (2006) found that Muslims, then 13.4 per cent of the population, held only 3 per cent of posts in the Indian Administrative Service, a gap that shows how deprivation and identity can become entangled.
  • Introduction (judgement, quote or report): Bipan Chandra described communalism as a belief that followers of a religion share secular interests, which is why it is a political ideology and not a form of faith.
  • Conclusion: Communalism is made, not inherited, so it can be unmade through fair policing, shared civic life and equal development for every community.
  • Conclusion: India's long record of living together is a stronger tradition than the episodes that disturb it, and the task of policy is to keep that tradition stronger.