Rise And Growth Of Communalism In India History Essay

Rise And Growth Of Communalism In India History EssayIntroduction Communalism is defined as a theory of a confederation that is divided into several small, independent communes and the state is just a confederation of these communes. It is sometimes said to put the worrys of the alliance above the interests of the individual. This is usually only make on the principle that the community exists for the benefit of the individuals who referenceicipate in it, so the best way to serve the interests of the individual is through the interests of the community.However it has turned to event a negative meaning where spate start promoting the interests of one community over an otherwise.Communalism believes that the people of different religions have different interests in policy-making and economic matters, regardless of whether they belong to the analogous nation or province.It is divided into three stagesFirst People having equal religion are intended to have similar area of inte rests.Second No common area of interest among people of dissimilar religion.Third People having similar interest from different religions are unsuitable to each other because of hatred and fear of religions.In the Indian context it has gone on to mean divide on the basis of religion and ethnicity leading(p) to communal violence instead of peace and brotherhood.Growth of Communalism in IndiaDuring the revolt of 1857, which is described as the first war for independence, Hindis and Muslims fought side by side joined in their purpose of defeating a common enemy. The British noniced this unity and realisticized that their survival rested on being able to keep the people divided, for they had managed to establish their rule because politically India had been a divided country at the time of their entry. This realization lead to the famous British Divide and Rule policy. piety was supposed to be one of the best factors to divide the people. It is use as an influential mechanism to a ttain economic, political and other social activities. And British use religion as their weapon to divide the strength which India had as a whole.Till 1870 the British oppressed the Muslims greatly for they held them responsible for the revolt. After 1870 the British changed color and instead started favoring the Muslim community. The rise of fieldism had threatened the British power in India and their efforts obviously were directed to suppress it. Now an important feature of the national movement was that it took longer to spread amongst the Muslim community. As a result the early nationalists movement was made up primarily of people from the Hindoo, Parsi and Christian communities. The British noticed the absence of the Muslims in this movement, and quickly began working on ensuring that they did not join the movement. The British began implementing policies too that promoted the activities of communal forces, and divided the national struggle.When the British capable up the administration of the country most positions were taken up the Hindus since the education culture had not spread to the Muslim Community making them feel left field out and demand a special reservation.Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan, an earlier nationalist drifted towards Communalism.Communalism was also fostered through the writing of the Indian History. Socio-religious reform movements the like Arya Samaj, Sanatan Dharam movements, Aligarh movement, Wahabi movement and some other fringe movements contributed towards communalism.Partition of BengalThe Partition of Bengal in 1905 was made on October 16 by then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. Partition was promoted on the grounds that Bengal was a very large state with a large population causing the eastern region to under-governed. However, the actual motives behind the partition were different. The position of the Bengali Hindus would be weakened, since Muslims would now dominate in the East which led to Hindu opposition to the partition wh ile the Muslims highly favored it. This partition was one more part of Divide and Rule policy.As the partition was in favor of Muslims they welcomed it, whereas the Hindus were not in favor of it. Due to this Hindu community launched a Swadeshi Movement by boycotting the British goods. Seeing this scenario British decided to support the Hindus, this act disturbed the Muslims. It was medium to tell the Muslims to go to their homeland.Formation of Muslim unionThe growing communalism led to the Muslims forming a new political party called the Muslim confederation in 1906. Initially it was only confined to the educated class of Muslims. At around the same time the Indian National congress began garnering mass support from its members and also consisted of young Muslims.Mohammed Ali Jinnah one of the major forces behind the creation of Pakistan was in fact a member of the Indian National Congress till 1920.Khilafat MovementKhilafat Movement (1919-1924) was a significant Islamic moveme nt in India during the British rule. The sultan of jokester also known as the caliph i.e. khalifa or successor of Prophet Muhammad was considered as the religious drawing card of the Muslims all over the world. This was first the religious political movement in India involving common Muslims. However, initially this movement was first targeted to the educated and elite Muslims only. The goals of the Khilafat Movement wereSecure the Ottoman CaliphateTurkeys territory should be protectedAnd not letting the Muslim holy places go under the hands of Non-Muslims.The Khilafat Movement received the support ofMahatma Gandhi and Nehru, who related his Non Cooperation Movementwith it. As major Congress leaders had joined hands with this movement the other political parties came together to support the injustice faced by the Muslims. Following were some steps taken by the movementNo involvement in the Victory celebrationsBoycotting of British commoditiesNon-cooperation Movement with the Govern ment.The briny leaders of the Khilafat Movement were Maulana Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali, famously known as the Ali brothers. They were among the leaders who used to protest from jail and their voices used to be heard through magazines and newspaper which awakened the Muslim community. The hub of this movement was Bombay, where they had their first conference wherein discussing the issues of the Movement.Jinnah, Muslim League and Hindu MahasabhaThe mass popularity that the Indian National Congress was enjoying led to The Muslim League feeling increasingly sidelined. As a result the Muslim League wononly 109 from 492 reserved Muslim seats and only 4.8 percent of the overall Muslim votesshowing thereby the lack of famous assistance for the Muslim League even amongst the Muslim inhabitants.In the elections of 1937 Muslims had a good response whereas its counterpart Hindus did not have encouraging response. For example, Hindu Mahasabha had acquired only 12 seats from one hundred seven ty-five inPunjab. This resulted in union of the parties in establish to ensure survival.This got worse in 1938 when the recounting prohibited communalists from functioning within the Congress organization. Thus the congress was criticized forpreaching that Hindus were the only Nation living inIndia. This led to the Hindu fundamentalists version of two nation theory.The two nation theory included Hindu Maha Sabha wherein it states that the country belongs to only Hindus and the Muslims should find their own home or should remain obedient to Hindus. And other the Muslim League wherein it states that Pakistan is the only option to protect the interest of Muslims as it has the maximum population of Muslims.After the outbreak of World War II, Viceroy Linlithgow constantly promoted the Muslim League and thePakistanpower was used to contradict the Congress command that the British should promise to liberateIndiaafter the war and as evidence of honesty, shift actual power of Government t o Indians immediately. Before promising or coming to a concrete solution the British wanted an agreement between the Muslims League and the Congress organization which stated that no political declaration should be made which was offensive to the Muslims League. This agreement would give Jinnah a type of a veto power which he would use in future.Jinnah the main leader of Muslim League had a different outlook for religion and its practices. One of the major drawbacks of Jinnah was he only supported the elite Muslims whereas showing no foreboding to the low and backward Muslims. The Muslim League wanted to give all the privileges to the elite Muslims only, which was for the Muslims Landlords and Nawabs.As the Muslims were not united during the pre partition days, the aim of the Muslim League was to provoke religious passions to dedicated path. As the low grade Muslims were not given importance in the Muslim League they decided their own highroad where they from sections like North West province and South where they supported Indian National Congress. Seeing this scenario the Muslim League used violent language.Since 1870, elite Hindus like zamindars, money lenders and other leaders started an organization to provoke anti Muslims and simultaneously opposing India National Congress. Their sole purpose was to remove the Muslims from the country. For them Hindus were first Hindus and then Indians. This thinking formed an organization known as Hindu Mahasabha and later was called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).Hindus Mahasabha created a false impression of patriotism by using slogans like Bharat Mata i.e. Mother India and so on, which created an impression that they wanted a country without Muslims. As according to them Hindus and Muslims were a separate Nation.Following are some common features of Hindu Communalism and Muslim CommunalismWas mainly for elite members like, Landlords and KingsWas supported by British, basically was in favor of British and not a gainst the British.Both wanted a separate nation as a wholeStrongly opposed Indian National CongressHatred for each otherPolitics was their backboneFollowed a hierarchy systemWere potently against democratic ethicsBy understanding the roots of communalism we must recognize that it is neither signifies religion nor patriotism as one but it signifies wellbeing. Then the religious communities are being divided into various sections like elite class low class and language it should be realized that no religious community is uniform as communalists. These particular fault lies in both Hindu and Muslims community. The Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha deliberately did not allow the low caste to participate which made linguistic culture lines which divided their religion on the basis on caste.As a result there were three main aspects which lead to the partition of India which areBritish Divide and Rule policyMuslim Communalism i.e. the Muslim League representing elite Muslim leaders, zami ndars and nawabsHindu Communalism i.e. Hindu Mahasabha or RSS representing Hindu leaders, Brahmins, money lendersPost-independenceMost communal riots prior to 1947 were rooted in the policy of British colonial rulers. But after the partition, a section of the Indian elite of both sections are also blamed for the problem. Communal problems post independence has been caused many factors, some of which areThe class division of society and the constraint of our economy resulted in unequal and unbalanced economy.It is the upper classes of the less developed communities that have enjoyed the fruits of limited growth and have hence enjoyed the political power.In order to draw support from their own communities, these leaders have always encouraged communal feelings to strengthen their political support.If we were to take a surface view of gross(a) facts of any communal riot in India, it would appear that the riot was caused by an incident so insignificant that we would stand amazed at ho w such a trifling matter could cause so much Larson, loot and murder. It however does not require much thinking to know that this incident was not the real cause of the riot. The basic cause for all communal disturbances is the communal atmosphere pervading the country and the communal tension built up between two communities. The communal atmosphere provides a ready tilled soil for communal minded people to sow seeds of communal hatred and nurture them until the bitter harvest of communal riots are reaped.