India is a secular State. Secular means non-religious, but in the context of Indian polity, it means co-existence of all religions without any kind of discrimination. But as India has been a multi-religious society since more than Millenia, the religious pluralism and the contradictions between the faiths tend to create communal identities, which in turn develop to a stage of communalism, when passing through the democratic process.

Communalism is associated with religious fundamentalism and dogmatism. It is described as a tool to mobilize people for or against by raising an appeal on communal lines. Religion, when deliberately used as a tool for attaining political gains nourishes the growth of communalism further.

Communal politics is a politics based on the belief that people who follow the same religion have common political, economic, social interests; the common interests of the followers of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of the followers of another religion, and the interests of the followers of different religions or religious communities are seen to be mutually incompatible, antagonistic and hostile.

Communalism puts the Indian society in a very conflicting situation and disrupts social unity due to distrust and animosity among different communities of India. Communal violence takes innocent lives, destroys individual and national property, and kills the spirit of love, affection, and humanism.

Religious places have been used as the stage for the political artists to exhibit the skill for communal disharmony.

The pressure and persistence of strong negative feelings and their manifestations in attitudes and behaviors of the relevant sections of the dominant, have adverse effects on the socio-economic and political life of the minority.

Pre-Independence

In India, till 1880 communal consciousness as a driving force was absent both in the Hindus and the Muslims. After the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1985 sowed the seeds of communal differences. The concept of the elections and consequential power made Muslims oppose the Congress and as desired by the government, the Muslims under the leadership of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan began to be loyal to the British. In this situation, the Indian Muslim League was founded in 1907 by big landlords and Zamindars which supported the partition of Bengal, demanded separate electorates, and made its motto to oppose Congress but not British Colonial rule.

1937 was the dividing landmark and pre-1937 was an era of liberal communalism and the post-1937 phase was that of extreme communalism.

This spread a new idea of rationalism based on cultural and religious ground, which finally led to the partition of British India.

Post-Independence

The growth of communalism in India is ingrained in the British policy of Divide and Rule. Independence was accompanied by the partition of our country on the basis of religion. It delivered a major blow to national unity & territorial integrity. Millions of people including children and women were butchered in the communal riots that followed the partition. The migration that occurred after the partition of British India was one of the largest in human history.

Since Independence, the class division of society and the backwardness of our economy resulted in an unequal and unbalanced economy. It is evident that year after year each political party is selecting their candidate on any seat with due consideration of the communal approach of that area and they are flaring up religious sentiments at the time of the election. In recent years, the hazards of communalism have reached an alarming height.


Post-Independence/Partition riots 1947-48.
Anti-Sikh riots, 1984.
Genocide of Kashmiri pandit, 1989.
Babri Masjid demolition, 1992.
Gujarat riots, 1969 & 2002.
Assam Communal Violence, 2012.
Muzaffarnagar violence, 2013 and recent Delhi riots.

Historically, it's evident that politics gave birth to Communalism in India. In order to bring down such incidents, there is a need for a radical change in mentality and one must learn to respect all other religions. It is important to create faith in all other religious communities that their feelings, faiths would be tolerated anyway. Respect for their thoughts and customs should be aroused. Political parties should keep themselves away from the communal issues, or the issues that threaten communalism. Because it is very important to safeguard and secure Unity and Integrity.