Revision summary
Communalism politicises religious identity as a block; it is not the same as ordinary faith. Power struggle uses separate electorates, riots around elections, and shrine campaigns to win the state. Relative deprivation uses job, housing, and honour gaps, as Sachar data and majority ‘appeasement’ myths both show. Partition, 1984, Babri 1992, and later state riots illustrate the mix. Organisation plus grievance, not theology alone, produces communalism.
Model answer
Introduction
Communalism is the political use of religious identity as a solid block against another community. It does not spring from faith as such. It grows when elites fight for office and when groups feel they have less than a neighbour they can name as the other.
Body
Communalism as power struggle
- Colonial ‘divide and rule’, separate electorates from 1909, and the later Pakistan demand turned religion into a bargaining chip for state power, not only into piety.
- Partition riots of 1946–47, including the Calcutta killings, showed how party and League–Congress rivalry could set neighbourhoods on fire when the prize was a new map.
- Post-Independence, riots have often clustered around elections, rath yatras, and disputes over a shrine or a procession route, because polarisation can convert a vote bank.
- The Babri Masjid–Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, peaking in 1992, was a struggle over national symbolism and party space as much as over a plot of land in Ayodhya.
- Control of police, municipal contracts, and university or Waqf boards can make a local strongman light a communal fuse to keep a ward.
Communalism as relative deprivation
- Relative deprivation is the feeling that one’s group is falling behind another in jobs, housing, honour, or state favour, even if absolute income is rising.
- Deindustrialisation of some Muslim artisan towns, ghettoisation after riots, and the Sachar Committee (2006) findings on education and credit fed a story of Muslim lag that communal entrepreneurs on all sides could use.
- Among Hindus, myths of ‘appeasement’ and competition for scarce government jobs or old-city shops have been used to claim that the majority is deprived in its own land.
- Refugee memory after Partition, and later migrations, created groups who measured loss against a neighbour’s gain.
- Economic shocks—downsizing of mills, youth unemployment—do not automatically cause riots, but they supply anger that can be aimed at a religious other when a leader offers that script.
How the two join, with illustrations
- Gujarat 2002 and Muzaffarnagar 2013 mixed electoral and street power with rumours about dignity, girls, and livelihood in mixed rural–urban belts.
- Anti-Sikh violence in 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination was a state-linked power crime, not a poverty riot, yet it also fed long relative fear in a minority.
- Cow, festival, and loudspeaker disputes are small honour contests that become communal when parties and rumours scale them up.
- Thus power struggle supplies organisation, weapons, and impunity; relative deprivation supplies the crowd’s sense of grievance. Either can start; both usually finish the episode.
Limits and way forward
- Not every poor or jobless person is communal; ideology and impunity matter.
- Equal policing, mixed housing, and honest data on jobs undercut both the elite game and the deprivation myth.
- Sachar-style inclusion and a secular, firm state are the policy reply; matching hate with hate is not.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD P[Elite power struggle] --> C[Communal mobilisation] D[Relative deprivation jobs honour] --> C C --> R[Riot polarised vote ghetto] R --> P R --> D
Conclusion
Communalism in India has risen from fights for state and street power, and from groups who feel relatively deprived beside a religious neighbour. Illustrations from Partition, Ayodhya, 1984, Gujarat, and ghetto economics show the two causes braided together. Faith is the language; power and grievance are the engine.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Distinguish between religiousness/religiosity and communalism giving one example of how the former has got transformed into the latter in independent India. (250 words).
Next question on this syllabus topic (2017 · Q19). View answer →
-
Is poverty the cause of communal riots?
Poverty can feed relative deprivation. Riots still need organisers, rumours, and police failure; poor mixed neighbourhoods also live in peace.
-
Can communalism exist without deprivation?
Yes. Elite fights for office and sacred sites can start violence even among groups that are not the poorest.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2020 · Q8 · GS I · 10 marks
Has caste lost its relevance in understanding the multi- cultural Indian Society? Elaborate your answer with illustrations. -
2020 · Q10 · GS I · 10 marks
Do you agree that regionalism in India appears to be a consequence of rising cultural assertiveness? Argue. -
2019 · Q10 · GS I · 10 marks
What are the challenges to our cultural practices in the name of secularism? -
2018 · Q8 · GS I · 10 marks
"Caste system is assuming new identities and associational forms. Hence, caste system cannot be eradicated in India." Comment. -
2018 · Q10 · GS I · 10 marks
How the Indian concept of secularism different from the western model of secularism? Discuss. -
2017 · Q19 · GS I · 15 marks
Distinguish between religiousness/religiosity and communalism giving one example of how the former has got transformed into the latter in independent India. (250 words). -
2016 · Q12 · GS I · 12 marks
What is the basis of regionalism? Is it that unequal distribution of benefits of development on regional basis eventually promotes regionalism? Substantiate your answer. -
2015 · Q13 · GS I · 12 marks
Debate the issue whether and how contemporary movements for assertion of Dalit identity work towards annihilation of caste.
More from this topic
Q9 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS I · 10 marks
Intercaste marriages between castes which have socio-economic parity have increased, to some extent, but this is less true of interreligious marriages. Discuss.
Social Empowerment, Communalism and Secularism
Intercaste marriage has increased a little where education, income and urban life already match. The Hindu Marriage Act does not bar intercaste unions. The Special Marriage Act offers a civil path. The rise is selective and still a minority practice. Caste violence has not vanished. Interreligious marriage is rarer because personal law, conversion fears and honour politics raise the cost. Class can sometimes buy a caste exception. It rarely buys a religious exception in today’s climate. Constitutional choice of partner exists. Social enforcement is still family and community.
Q20 · UPSC Mains 2023 · GS I · 15 marks
Discuss the impact of post-liberal economy on ethnic identity and communalism.
Social Empowerment, Communalism and Secularism
After 1991, markets, private jobs, and mass media grew together. Ethnic claims for language, tribe, and new states continued inside that growth. Communal mobilisation used television, rumour, and later social media. Riots and polarising politics showed that GDP does not cancel religious conflict. The market can mix people at work and still sell identity at home and at the vote.
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2023 · GS I · 15 marks
Why is caste identity in India both fluid and static?
Social Empowerment, Communalism and Secularism
Sanskritization, migration, and quota politics make caste claims move. Endogamy, atrocities, and caste associations keep rank sticky. The office can be fluid while the wedding remains static. Law bans untouchability; practice often does not. Both words in the question are therefore right at the same time.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.