COMMUNALISM

An Indian Perspective

Presented By:
Mohit Sachan
Shankar Bohra
Shweta Nawani
Smrity Kumari
Sonal Singh
CONCEPT OF COMMUNALISM

COMMUNALISM THEORIES

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNALISM

WOMEN AND COMMUNALISM

 COMMUNALISM

Communalism is a term with three distinct meanings according to the Random House

Unabridged Dictionary. These include:

• A theory of government or a system of government in which independent

communes participate in a federation.
• The principles and practice of communal ownership
• The third definition is ‘strong allegiance to one's own ethnic group rather than to
society’

Communalism as a political philosophy was first coined by the well-known libertarian

socialist author and activist Murray Bookchin.
 COMMUNITY & COMMUNALISM

• Communalism is associated with communities.

• Community is a group of people with some common bonds or notion of
common identity.
• Communalism may be seen as a process of the competitive aspirations of
communities to dominate and/or resist domination of others over
perceived as well as real threats.
• Jones defines “communalism as consciously shared religious heritage
which becomes the dominant form of identity for a given segment of
society”
 COMMUNALISM – SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

• Communalism in India is linked with the colonial period.

• Under colonialism, the religious definition of community has become so
predominant that in common discourse communalism has become more
or less synonymous with communalism of the religious variety
• Communalism has been commonly understood in the literature as
conflicts over secular issues between religious communities.
• Communalism is rooted in power relations between communities,
histories of togetherness and a disposition to dominate others.
 COMMUNALISM THEORIES

Communalism has been defined and explained from a variety of theoretical

perspectives, i.e.

• Essentialism
• Instrumentalism
• Constructivism
• Institutionalism
 COMMUNALISM
Essentialism-
Essentialism or Primordialism is the perspective that believes Hindus and
Muslims have formed monolithic communities since the beginning and the
two communities have always been at odds with each other.

Instrumentalism-
Instrumentalism sees communal conflict/violence as a consequence of the
vested interests of political leaders, elites and the middle class. Communalism
has been seen as “perversion of religion from a moral order to temporal
arrangement of contemporary convenience, from a faith into a constituency,
from a strategy of living into tactics of politics, from an end into a means”
 COMMUNALISM
Constructivism-
As per this theory communalism is not merely a reflection of a preexisting
community but the will to create a bounded community in which groups play
down internal divisions to create the broadest possible unity against the
group defined as the “other” (Pandey 1990; Thapar 1989). This theoretical
strand resulted in the hardening of religious identity and the formation of
community consciousness.

Institutionalism-
communal conflict/violence is structured in economic and political
institutions. As per this theory economic hardships, slow economic
development and paucity of resources as the reasons for communalism.
 COMMUNALISM IN INDIA
• In India Communalism is primarily understood as conflict between Hindus
and Muslims.
• Sometimes communalism has gone beyond just ’Hindu – Muslim’ conflict,
in India. One similar example is of Non-Brahminical movement in Tamil
Nadu.
DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNALISM –

PRE-COLONIAL, COLONIAL AND

POSTCOLONIAL PERIODS
 PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD

• Homogeneous religious identity was not present in the pre-colonial

period.
• Language, ethnicity, caste and region are more apparent bonds. Religious
perceptions and hostilities were more localized.

• .
COLONIAL PERIOD
POST-COLONIAL PERIOD
COMMUNALISM- POST INDEPENDENCE
HINDU AND MUSLIM GROUPS
CLASS AND COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS
WOMEN AND COMMUNALISM
EXTERNAL FACTORS – MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY
 COMMUNALISM
• Politicization has been instrumental in extending the idea of
homogeneous religious identity over a period of time and process was
facilitated by active use of technology
THANK YOU!