Revision summary
Communalism politicises religion as a bloc against others. It is modern, fed by census and electorates, not a timeless Indian essence. Srinivas’s jati world is flatter in communal talk than in the village. It threatens a multi-religious polity by capturing the common roll. It also hides tribe and language inside a two-faith story.
Model answer
Introduction
Communalism is the political use of religious identity as a bloc that claims the state. In a multi-religious and multiethnic India it is both a colonial inheritance and a living electoral language.
Body
The concept
- Colonial census and separate electorates taught Indians to count as Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Christian publics.
- Bipan Chandra and many historians treated communalism as modern politics, not ancient faith war.
- Anthropology adds M. N. Srinivas’s jati and Louis Dumont’s hierarchy: everyday life is ranked and mixed; communalism flattens it into two or three armies.
Relevance for the polity
- A multi-religious republic needs Articles 25–30 and a common roll. Communalism tries to make the roll a religious census.
- Multiethnic reality includes language, tribe, and region. Communal frames hide Fifth and Sixth Schedule questions and linguistic minorities inside a Hindu–Muslim plot.
- Riots, personal-law fights, and conversion panics are the operational face. They punish mixed towns and mixed marriages.
Critique
- The concept can itself become too Hindu–Muslim, ignoring caste blocs and tribal faiths.
- Not every festival or shrine dispute is communalism. The test is whether religion is organised to capture the state against others.
- N. K. Bose’s civilisational unity and Nehru’s civic nation are the counter-concepts: diversity housed by law, not by a single sacred majority.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Communalism] --> B[Religious blocs] J[Jati tribe language] --> P[Plural polity] C --> R[Riot electoral veto]
Conclusion
Communalism remains relevant because it still converts faith into a vote and a veto. A multiethnic polity survives by keeping jati, language, and tribe visible, and by refusing a two-community state.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Examine in detail the role of anthropology in planning for tribal development
Next question in the 2015 paper (Q4). View answer →
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Is communalism the same as religiosity?
No. Faith can be local and mixed. Communalism organises faith as a political army.
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Does ethnicity replace communalism?
Language and tribe are other politicised identities. Communalism is the religious form.
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