RISE OF COMMUNALISM IN INDIA

Introduction: Communalism is defined as a theory of a society 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 interests of the
community above the interests of the individual. This is usually only done on the
principle that the community exists for the benefit of the individuals who participate
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 take a negative meaning where people start promoting the
interests of one community over another.
Communalism believes that the people of different religions have different interests
in political and economic matters, regardless of whether they belong to the same
nation or province.
It is divided into three stages:
First: People having similar religion are intended to have similar area of interests.
Second: No common area of interest among people of dissimilar religion.
Third: People having similar interest from different religions are incompatible 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 to communal violence instead of peace and brotherhood.

Growth of Communalism in India:

Till 1870 the British oppressed the Muslims greatly for they held them responsible
for the revolt. After 1870 the British changed colors and instead started favoring the
Muslim community. The rise of nationalism 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 Religion was supposed to be one of
the best factors to divide the people. It is used as an influential mechanism to attain
economic, political and other social activities. And British used religion as their

weapon to divide the strength which India had as a whole. The British began
implementing policies too that promoted the activities of communal forces, and
divided the national struggle.

PARTITION OF BENGAL:
The 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 while 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 Hindu's 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 LEAGUE:

The growing communalism led to the Muslims forming a new political party called
the Muslim League 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 MOVEMENT:
Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) was a significant Islamic movement in India during
the British rule. The sultan of turkey also known as the caliph i.e. khalifa or
successor of Prophet Muhammad was considered as the religious leader 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 were:

Secure the Ottoman Caliphate

Turkey's territory should be protected
And not letting the Muslim holy places go under the hands of Non-Muslims.
The Khilafat Movement received the support of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru, who
related his Non Cooperation Movement with 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
movement:
No involvement in the Victory celebrations
Boycotting of British commodities
Non-cooperation Movement with the Government.
The main 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

JINNAH, MUSLIM LEAGUE AND

HINDU MAHASABHA:
The mass popularity that the Indian National Congress was enjoying led to The
Muslim League feeling increasingly sidelined. As a result the Muslim League
won only 109 from 492 reserved Muslim seats and only 4.8 percent of the overall
Muslim votes showing 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 175 in Punjab. This resulted in union of the parties in
order to ensure survival.
This got worse in 1938 when the congress prohibited communalists from functioning
within the Congress organization. Thus the congress was criticized for preaching
that Hindus were the only Nation living in India. This led to the Hindu
fundamentalist's 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 the Pakistan power was used to contradict the Congress
command that the British should promise to liberate India after the war and as
evidence of honesty, shift actual power of Government to 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 settlement 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 anxiety 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 caste
Muslims were not given importance in the Muslim League they decided their own
pathway 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 thought 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
Communalism

Was mainly for elite members like, Landlords and Kings

Was supported by British, basically was in favor of British and not against the British.
Both wanted a separate nation as a whole
Strongly opposed Indian National Congress
Hatred for each other
Politics was their backbone
Followed a hierarchy system
Were strongly against democratic ethics

Conclusion-Along with the rise of nationalis communalism too

made its appearance around the end of the nineteenth century and
posed the biggest threat to the unity of the Indian people and the
national movem ent