The term communalism denotes is the situation, in which a particular community tries to promote its own interest at the cost of another community. Or communalism is a process in which we attempt to construct religious or ethnic identities and stimulate communal violence between these different groups.
The literal meaning of the word communalism is a strong sense of loyalty to the interest of one particular group, it can be a religious group or ethnic group, rather than to society as a whole it can lead to extreme behavior or violence towards others also.
Causes of the communalism
There are so many factors that contribute to the rise of communalism in any country such as
1) first many political parties in order to achieve their own gains give patronages or we can say direct support to communal groups or activities which lead to communal riots and violence in a region
2) another is many communal organizations rise or are established in a country that propagates or promotes religion socially through cultural activities which increases or even version the problem of communal politics.
3) some influential religious leaders give hate speech and use their influence over the masses to miss guide them, especially the ignorant masses who are easily caught up in the religious favor and are willing to act violently.
4) another and even most important reason behind the rise of communalism is an external threat like many foreign forces which train extremists and supply them weapons for terrorist activities to fuel communal unrest in the nation.
Effects of communalism
Communalism generates a perception of community-specific interest which is very harmful to a country. the harmful effects of communalism are following –
1)Communalism creates a threat to social harmony and brotherhood in a country.
2) It creates a perpetual cycle of distress and violence in society.
3) communalism put a break on the development process of a country such as Jammu Kashmir is the classical example of a region that suffered from many criminal tensions and not achieving its tremendous potential for growth because the development of a country can only happen in a harmonious environment where human beings engaged in production activities, not in violence.
4) the communal tensions especially in border areas can lead to illegal infiltration and fitting to peace all and also for national security.
5) communalism is the biggest challenge for democracy especially when voters start behaving communally during the elections and do not make the right decisions through voting machines. Due to all this, there is a loss of credibility of democracy.
Communal violence in India
After independence, India faced many communal riots such as
1) 1966 Hindu Sikh riots: it happened on March 16, 1966, in Delhi. the main reason behind this was the creation of Punjabi Suba between Hindus and Sikhs.
2) 1967 Rachi Bhatia riots: it happened between 22nd August to 29 August 1967 in Ranchi. it was an anti-Urdu agitation. it happened among Hindus and Muslims. In it, 195 shops were looted and burnt, and 3 places of worship were damaged.
3) Then in 1984 anti-Sikh riots happened. it happened between the 31st of October 1984 and to 3 November 1984, in Punjab Haryana Delhi Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar. the main reason behind it was the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards. In it, Congress politicians spread rumors that 6 are killing Hindus and Muslims and burning their places of worship and Punjab.
In contemporary times India is a diverse society where we have different cultures and it is a combination of mixing religions from the past 1 year there is no such religious-based violence has been noticed but from the last Ram Navami to Hanuman Jayanti, one has observed the list of violence at different places like in Rajasthan Carlos where we have INC Ashok Gehlot state government, There violence on religious procession has been observed where miscreants stone pelting on the Hindu bikers rally. A similar incident happened in Jharkhand where the human Jharkhand party is ruling for which commissioner Ansari held to be responsible as on Hindu procession stone pelting has been noticed where people got injured but commissioner didn’t do needful. A clash broke out during the Ram Navami procession in Gujarat’s Khambhat where we have Bhupendra Bhai Patel as chief minister from the BJP, on Sunday, April 10, in which one person was killed and another was injured. A few shops were set on fire as well. The police had to use tear gas to bring the situation under control.
During the Ram Navami Rath Yatra procession, stone pelting occurred where one died and several were injured.
Their motive was to ensure that no such yatra takes place in the future. The main accused, Razzak Hussain Patel Maulvi, is from the nearby dargah.
Khargon Madhya Pradesh where we have Shivraj Singh Chauhan chief minister of Madhya Pradesh from BJP, Incident in charge pertains to violence and stone pelting on the religious procession. on 10 April where tear gas has been used to control the violence.
During the procession in Jahangirpuri, on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti on Saturday, there was a clash between two communities, in which eight policemen and a local resident got injured.
In Jahangir puri, on the occasion of HANUMAN Jayanti riots break out According to the police, stone pelting and arson took place during the clashes and some vehicles were also torched. where without permission rally was conducted in front of the mosque, and religious slogans in a high voice
Similarly, like above many other instances of communal violence took place in India like the 1988 Muzaffarnagar riots, 1989 Jammu and Sikh riots, 1989 Bombay Maharashtra violence,1991 Tamil violence in Karnataka, 1992 Bombay riots, 1992 Surat Gujarat,1997 Rios in Tamilnadu, 2012 Assam violence, 2017 Northern India rights, 2018 Bihar riots,2020 Delhi rights,2021 Assam eviction violence,2022 Kanpur violence, 2022 Rachi violence.
Delhi riots 2020 happened between 23 February 2020 to 1 March 2020 in North East Delhi. the main reason behind this was the CAA NRC protest by the Muslim community. In it, 200 plus people were wounded also many shops houses vehicles, and mosques were damaged.
Recently Delhi also experienced new communal riots in Jahangir puri on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in which people through stones on a peaceful procession.
How to tackle the effects of communalism –
Increasing public awareness in public about the harmful impact of communalism can reduce the chances of communal violence in a region. Also one must learn to put the national interest above them once religious views. Moreover, we can also make strict laws and their enforcement against the activities of riots and violence. Government can also formulate a uniform civil code and implement it but only with the consensus of all the religious committees.
Simultaneously the politicization of religion must be stopped or tackled by the law enforcement agency very strictly.
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