Reasons for the growth of Muslim communalism in

India

Bharat Ek Khoj | Episode-51 | Separatism

What is communalism?

Communalism means for a community, for Indians it means the social and religious
barriers between Hindus and Muslims which have hindered India from building a
harmonious nation. Out of communalism grew communal politics and out of that
grew more communalism. The culmination of which was seen in the form of
communal violence and partition of India.

It is very difficult to attribute any one reason to the growth of communalism in India.
Different scholars have tried to make different elements and circumstances more or
less responsible according to their own predilections. The different reasons that
have been given can be divided into two main parts –

Muslim Communalism: A Legacy of India's Social Background

1. Two nation theory

Some scholars argue that India was never a nation, but was merely a community of
different castes and societies, and that Hindu-Muslim interaction was "a clash of
two civilizations whose languages, literary bases, ideas of education And the
philosophical sources were all different.” Moreover, the religious and social
differences between the two societies were so sharp and fundamental that even
after living side by side for seven hundred years, they did not diminish in any way.

2. 'Economic backwardness' of Muslims

Marxist scholars have attributed this to the 'economic backwardness' of Muslims

and the 'delay in the emergence of the middle class'. The new Muslim intellectuals
and the upper class saw that business, finance and government posts were all
monopolized by the Hindus. To protect their class interests, the Muslim intellectuals
gave a communal twist to the Muslim awakening and demanded separate
constituencies, representation and reservation in posts. Since economic questions
are basic questions, the exploiting class misled the public and gave their frustration
the form of communal expression.

3. Lack of modernity and fear among Muslims

Nehru considered communalism to be a middle class question and he attributed it

to the 'lack of modernity' among Hindus and Muslims. According to him, there was
a difference of a 'generation' or more in the emergence of Hindu and Muslim middle
classes and these differences are manifesting themselves in political, economic
and other aspects. It is this difference which psychologically creates fear among
Muslims."

4. Theory of Elite class struggle

Some western scholars have told communalism to be the cause of conflict between
specific classes in a multi-class society. They consider communalism to be the
same as communal politics. According to him, the basic conflict was not between
the Hindu and the Muslim societies, but between the rival elite class in both the
religions who had become greedy for power.

5. Religious reformist movement

It has been said that the emergence of communalism was inevitable in the Hindu
and Muslim reform movements of the 19th century. Wahhabis' crusade against all
non-Muslims, so that Darul Islam could be established in the world, was as hateful
to Hindus as Swami Dayanand ji's saying, "Purify non-Hindus and make the whole
world Aryan", Muslims Even Viveka-Nanda's reference to ancient Indian
achievements and saying that this is the real Indian spirit was unacceptable to
Muslims because they often looked to the history of West Asia for their tradition
and identity. .

6. Use of religious symbols in the national movement

Some scholars criticize their national leaders for using religious proverbs and
symbols in their writings and speeches. For example, these people started calling
people like Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and Guru Govind Singh as national heroes and
Muslim rulers like Akbar, Shah Jahan as foreigners. This created some resentment
in the Muslim mind. Similarly, the national symbols mentioned by Gandhiji in his
speeches were mostly taken from Hindu sources. He often used the word 'Ram
Rajya' for the best and ideal administration.

Muslim Communalism: A Gift/Result of British Colonialism

1. Theory of communal triangle

Some writers presented the theory of communal triangle and said that between
Hindus and Muslims the British rulers introduced themselves and made a triangle
whose main base was themselves. Emphasis has been placed on the fact that the
imperialist rulers promoted communal disunity through official machinations and
manipulations as this fit in with their famous dictum "Divide and rule". The British
called the victory of the Battle of Plassey the Plassey Revolution and claimed that
they had freed the Hindus from the slavery of the Muslims. But he was deeply
disappointed with the Hindu-Muslim unity of 1857, and Hunter, in 1871, wrote a
book called Indian Muslmans, enumerating the benefits of separation of Muslims
from Hindus. The Aligarh Movement and the Muslim League were encouraged by
the British to divide the Indians.

2. Constitutional System
Some scholars have attributed this to the constitutional changes taking place in the
Indian structure and its profound effects on communal politics. Ever since the
introduction of such a representation system in which numbers mattered, the
process of polar division started in the country, especially in a country where many
religions were prevalent. Thus the introduction of separate electorates by the Mitto-
Morley reforms in 1909 and the spread of the same system by the Government of
India Acts of 1919 and 1935 encouraged communal feelings.

3. Historiography of India

Anglo-Indian writers of history tried to read or write Indian history and culture from
Hindu and Muslim point of view. Indian scholars also followed this, which
encouraged communal thinking. For example, ancient Indian history was termed as
'Hindu era' and medieval Indian history as 'Muslim era' and the period of modern
India as 'British India', violating all the norms of history, it was explained that in all
medieval history, religious politics was the only guiding factor. In this way one past
of India was separated from the other past.

4. Use of protection of government posts

After the destruction of Indian industry and trade, the government was the biggest
employer, where educated Indians could get positions to earn their living. This great
patronage in military and civilian positions was used by the ruling class to promote
communalism. Our national leaders were well aware of the harmful effects of this
temptation, but they were powerless before the question of hunger.

There is definitely some grain of truth in all these interpretations. The form of the
communal question kept changing according to the circumstances of the time and
the new political conditions. In this way, none of the above-mentioned reasons can
be called the basic or fundamental reason. But all these had a cumulative effect
which gave rise to multifaceted communalism.