Problems of Communalism in India

Indian society is pluralistic from religious point of view. Here, we have the followers of all the
great religious systems. Hindus constitute the bulk of the population and they inhabit in all parts
of the country. Muslims constitute the largest religious minority. But the adjustment between the
Hindus and Muslims has been a failure several times, resulting in violent communal riots.
Communal riots during the period of independence. Communalism was responsible for the
division of the country into India and Pakistan. The partition was expected to resolve the riddle,
but it failed.

Meaning of Communalism:
 Communalism is blind loyalty to one’s own religious group.
 It is a tool to mobilize people for or against by raising an appeal on communal lines.
 Communalism is associated with religious fundamentalism and dogmatism.
 Abdul Ahmed says, “Communalism is a social phenomenon characterized by the
religion of two communities, often leading to acrimony, tension and even rioting between
them”.
 Prabha Dixit writes, Communalism is a political doctrine which makes use of religious
and cultural differences to achieve political ends.
 It may be perceived as a total commitment to a set of beliefs and is far from rationality.

Characteristics of Communalism:
1. Ideological concept
2. Complex process
3. Encompasses social, economic and political aspects for its manifestation.
4. It causes rivalry, violence and tension among masses.
5. It is used by the higher class people and elites as an instrument for division and
exploitation of the communal identities of the poorer sections of their co-religionists.
6. Communalism is simply engineered by opportunistic political and economic interest.
7. It strikes at the roots of democracy, secularism and national integration.

Causes of Communalism:

1. Tendency of the Minorities: The Muslims fail to be intermingled in the national mainstream.
Most of them do not participate in the secular nationalistic politics and insist on maintaining
separate identity.

2. Orthodoxy and Obscurantism: There are strong elements of conservatism and

fundamentalism among the Muslims. Such feeling has prevented them from accepting the
concept of secularism and religious tolerance.

3. Design of the Leaders: Communalism has flourished in India because the communalist
leaders of both Hindu and Muslim communities desire to flourish it in the interest of their
communities. The demand for separate electorate and the organization of Muslim league were
the practical manifestations of this line of thought. The British rule which produced the divide
and rule policy, separate electorate on the basis of religion strengthened the basis of
communalism in India. Ultimately the partition of the country provided further antagonistic
feeling towards each other.
4. Weak Economic Status: Due to their educational backwardness, they have not been
represented sufficiently in the public service, industry and trade etc. This causes the feeling of
relative deprivation and such feelings contain the seeds of communalism.

5. Geographical Causes: The territorial settlement of different religious groups especially

Hindus Muslims and Christians causes in them wide variation in the mode of life, social
standards and belief system. Most of these patterns are contradictory and this may cause
communal tension.

6. Historical Causes

7. Social Causes: Social institutions, customs and practices of Hindus and Muslims are so
divergent that they think themselves to be two distinct communities.

8. Psychological Causes: Psychological factors play an important role in the development of

communalism. The Hindus think that the Muslims are fanatics and fundamentalists. They also
believe that Muslims are unpatriotic. On the contrary, the Muslims feel that they are being
treated as second rate citizens in India and their religious beliefs and practices are inferior. These
feelings lead to communal ill-feeing.

9. Provocation of Enemy Countries: Some foreign countries try to destabilize our country by
setting one community against the other through their agents. Pakistan has played a role in
fostering communal feeling among the Muslims of our country. Pakistan has been encouraging
and promoting communal riots by instigating the militant sections of Indian Muslim community.
Kashmir youths are trained by Pakistan to destabilize India’s internal security by spreading
communal venom.

10. Negative Impact of Mass Media: The messages relating to communal tension or riot in any
part of the country spread through the mass media. This results in further tension and riots
between two rival religious groups.

11. Ineffective Handling of Communal Riots

Suggestions for the Eradication of Communalism:

1. Abolition of Communal Parties:

All the political parties which thrive on religious loyalties should be banned or abolished by the
government. Even non-political cultural organizations should always be kept under constant vigil
so that they cannot preach communalism.

2. Transmission of the Past Heritage:

Feelings of nationalism should be inculcated in the minds of people by reminding them about the
glorious moments of history in Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were combined to safeguard the
interest of the country.

3. Public Opinion:
Efforts should be made through mass media for changing the attitude of people towards other
communities. People must be aware of the evils of the communalism.

4. Inter-religious Marriage:

Youth organizations and other types of associations should be formed in every locality to give
opportunity to people of different communities to come closer and know each other. This may
help them to practice inter-religious marriages which will lessen the social distance among the
members of different religious groups.

Both the Government and people should make efforts for eradication of communal tension and
conflict.

The NAC Communal Violence Bill: Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence 2011

The National Advisory Committee has recently come out with a Communal Violence Bill. The
Bill is intended to prevent acts of violence, or incitement to violence directed at people by
virtue of their membership to any “group”.

An existing Bill titled the “Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of
Victims) Bill, 2005” pending in the Rajya Sabha. The main features of the NAC Bill are
explained below:

1. The Bill makes illegal acts which result in injury to persons or property, if such acts are
directed against persons on the basis of their affiliation to any group, and if such an act
destroys the secular fabric of the nation. Such acts include sexual assault, hate
propaganda, torture and organized communal violence.
2. It makes public servants punishable for failing to discharge their stated duties in an
unbiased manner. In addition, public servants have duties such as the duty to provide
protection to victims of communal violence and also have to take steps to prevent the
outbreak of communal violence.
3. The Bill establishes a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice, and
Reparation NACHJR to prevent acts of communal violence, incitement to communal
violence, containing the spread of communal violence, and monitoring investigations into
acts of communal violence. The Authority can also inquire into and investigate acts of
communal violence by itself. The Bill also provides for the setting up of State
Authorities for Communal Harmony, Justice, and Reparation.
4. The central or state government has been given the authority to intercept any messages or
transmissions if it feels that it might lead to communal violence. This power is subject to
existing procedures which have to be complied with for intercepting messages and
transmissions.
5. Importantly, if public officers are liable to be prosecuted for offences under the Bill, and
prior sanction is required for such prosecution, the state government has to grant or refuse
sanction within 30 days. If not, then sanction will be deemed to have been granted.
6. The Bill also allows the states to set up one or more Human Rights Defender of Justice
and Reparations’ in every district. The Human Rights defender will ensure that those
affected by communal and targeted violence are able to access their rights under existing
laws.
 7. Apart from these, the Bill also establishes state and district-level authorities for assessing
compensation for victims of communal violence.
8. States have numerous obligations towards victims, such as establishment of relief camps,
ensuring proper facilities, medical provisions and clothing for those within camps, etc.
9. The states government also has the obligation to create conditions which allow the return
of victims of communal violence to the place of their ordinary residence.

India divided over communal violence bill

India is on the brink of enacting legislation that will seek justice for minorities of all categories
when they become victims of targeted, mass violence.

Crafted by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the Prevention of Communal and Targeted
Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, will be introduced in parliament during
the upcoming monsoon session.

The bill aims at creating a framework for preventing pogroms such as the attacks on Muslims in
Gujarat in 2002, and the provision of relief for victims of such violence. It has kicked up a storm
with some people criticizing it as "draconian" and "anti-Hindu" and others dismissing it as
"toothless and meaningless".

Communal violence has wracked India for decades. Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 was
accompanied by horrific violence between Hindus and Sikhs on the one hand and Muslims on
the other, leaving a million dead and over 10 times that number homeless.

Since independence, there have been countless instances of communal violence. In the 2005-09
period alone, 648 people were killed and 11,278 injured in 4,030 such incidents, according to the
PRS Legislative Research website. Communal clashes during this period peaked in 2008 with
943 cases being reported that year.

Communal violence in India is rarely spontaneous. It is mostly engineered. Most clashes have
been between Hindus and Muslims but Hindu-Christian violence too is not uncommon. While
people of all religious communities suffer during these riots, it is the minorities - Muslims, Sikhs,
and in recent years Christians who have borne the brunt.

Some of the worst communal pogroms have occurred in the past three decades. In 1984,
following the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, mobs led
by politicians from the ruling Congress party incited and organized the burning and looting of
property and killing of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of North India. Around 3,000 Sikhs were
killed. The government did nothing to halt the violence for at least three days. Indira's son and
successor, Rajiv Gandhi, even justified the violence, declaring that "when a mighty tree falls, it is
only natural that the earth around it does shake a little".

When the Babri Masjid, a famous mosque in Ayodhya was destroyed by Hindu nationalists in
December 1992, riots broke out in various parts of the country. Mumbai suffered the worst with
around 900 people killed, about 575 of them Muslims.

A decade later, Gujarat convulsed with communal violence when mobs led by ministers and
politicians of the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its fraternal organizations
attacked Muslims and destroyed their property. Chief Minister Narendra Modi's government did
little to stop the violence. In fact, police were reportedly instructed at a meeting that they allow
Hindus to "vent their anger" against Muslims over an "attack" on a train, the Sabarmati Express,
which was set alight a few days earlier, resulting in the death of around 59 passengers, mainly
Hindu.

Rarely during communal violence have those targeted got state protection. Police ignore calls for
help and refuse to register cases filed by victims. Seldom have the guilty been brought to justice.

According to Harvinder Singh Phoolka, a senior Supreme Court advocate who has been
fighting for justice on behalf of victims of the 1984 riots, "Out of 2,733 officially admitted
murders [in the anti-Sikh violence of 1084], only nine cases led to convictions." Twenty-seven
years since the pogrom, just over 20 of the accused have been convicted - a conviction rate of
less than 1%.

What is more, rarely have victims received the relief they are entitled to. If communal violence
occurs and is not controlled immediately it is because the police and local authorities refuse to do
their duty.

"What we need, thus, is not so much a new law defining new crimes (although that would be
useful too) but a law to ensure that the police and bureaucrats and their political masters follow
the existing law of the land. In other words, we need a law that punishes them for discriminating
against citizens who happen to be minorities," he writes. And this is what the Prevention of
Communal and Targeted Violence bill sets out to do.

With the bill providing for sentences of up to 10 years imprisonment for breach of command
responsibility, "superiors will hopefully be deterred from allowing a Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002
to happen on their watch.”

India's constitution declares the country to be secular. However, institutional bias against
religious and linguistic minorities is deeply entrenched, making them vulnerable to violence. The
Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill seeks to change this in several ways.

It describes "communal and targeted violence" as that acts that are "knowingly directed against
any person by virtue of his or her membership of any group, which destroys the secular fabric of
the nation" and then goes on to define "group" as "a religious or linguistic minority or
Scheduled Castes [Dalits] and Scheduled Tribes."

In other words, only violence against a minority community is considered communal

violence.

The law also makes it obligatory that at least four of the seven member posts in the National
Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation belong to a minority community.

The bill has drawn fire from Hindu nationalists, who see it as evidence of the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government's appeasement of Muslims. They are asking why violence against
the majority community should not be considered communal.
Social activist Ram Puniyani draws attention to "concrete realities" in Indian society to justify
the bill's focus on minorities. The minorities have after all suffered disproportionately during
communal violence. Muslims comprise 90% of victims of violence, he says.

Besides, the bill speaks of "a religious and linguistic minority in any state" in India. Hindus are
an overwhelming majority - 80.46% - nationwide but constitute a minority in seven states,
including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland. They too are thus
covered by the bill.

An earlier draft of the bill had irked secular sections as well. It had defined communal violence
as that which has destroyed India's secular fabric. This prompted criticism that the bill raised the
bar for violence to be regarded as communal too high rendering it meaningless. After all it is
arguable whether any incident of communal violence has actually destroyed India's secular
fabric.

Responding to criticism, the NAC has now made 49 amendments to its earlier draft. In its
definition of communal and targeted violence it has dropped the reference to "destruction of the
secular fabric". It has also deleted a clause in the earlier draft that allowed the federal
government to unilaterally intervene in communal situations in states as it had raised concern
over its implications for the working of the country's federal structure.

The NAC has, however, ignored the right-wing's criticism and stuck to its focus on minorities in
the bill. This could mean that the bill will come up against fierce opposition in parliament from
parties like the BJP.

Muzaffarnagar gang-rapes: No justice for these Nirbhayas

The anatomy of rapes and riots is the same across the country. A miniscule percentage of actual
rapes which take place during riots are reported to the authorities. Even lesser go to the trial
stage, say activists who have closely observed patterns of gender violence in successive riots.
India must investigate allegations of sexual assault and gang rape committed during last month's
deadly communal riots which forced tens of thousands of people to flee and seek shelter in relief
camps, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged.

The one-man judicial commission appointed to probe the Muzaffarnagar riots began its work
Monday. Commission chairman, retired high court judge Vishnu Sahay, was briefed by district
officials in Muzaffarnagar. The commission has been mandated to probe all events between Aug
27 and Sep 9 and look into the reasons behind the violence that took a communal hue. It has also
been asked to suggest ways to prevent a repeat of such incidents.

Chronology of communal violence in India

1. 1969 Ahmedabad riots:
2. 1984 sikh riots:
3. 1987 Merrut riots:
4. 1989 Bhagalpur riots:
5. The Babri masjid demolition set off riots between December 1992 and January 1993.
6. 1992 Mumbai riots:
7. 2002 Gujarat riots: