The Rise of Communalism in India free essay sample

Communalism could be defined as a consciously shared religious heritage, which becomes the dominant form of identity for a given segment of society (Jones 1968). It mainly occurred between Muslims and Hindus. The autocratic Hindus in India insisted that the nation should be based on the Hindutva ideology, which are Hindi language, Hindu belief and Hindustan land. However, Hindutva ideology should not be the only cause of the rise of communalism in India since Muslims and Hindus had lived together for over than centuries. Colonialism took part on creating tensions between Muslim and Hindus. In addition, political clash had raised the tensions between them. In this research paper, I will prove that the rise of communalism in India was not just because of the Hindutva ideology and the Hindutva movement but also because of the British involvement and intervention in Indian society. Furthermore, the Muslims also raised the tension by making themselves apart from the Hindus and created conflicts against the Hindus. We will write a custom essay sample on The Rise of Communalism in India or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Hinduism as a benchmark of Nationalism Hindu was the belief of the ancestors of India. Hindu had been the beliefs of the ancestry of Indians for millenniums, and has become an inherent part of the Indian culture, for instance, the caste system. Hinduism and Nationalism is inseparable as Hindu had became tradition of Indians. In fact, 80. 5% of the India populations are Hindus, and clearly shows Hindu dominated India. The emergence of the communalism was indicated by the outbreak of Hindutva ideology. Hindutva ideology came up in the late 1800’s by Savarkar, which means â€Å"Hinduness†. The Hindu nationalists believed that Motherland India is the land of Hindus, meaning if you are not a Hindu, you are not Indian. Indians should speak Hindi, prayed to the Hindu gods and have the same interests with the other Hindus. Hindu has become the measure of Nationalism (Snehi 2003). Anyone who is not a Hindu welcomed as a guest, and they addressed this to the Muslims. The Hindus believed that ever since the Muslims came to India, they had spread a religion that was not in tune with the Indians, and when the Muslims ruled the India, they intended to wipe off Hindu race and replaced it with Islam (Snehi 2003). When the Mughal Empire fell apart, it indicated that the Muslims power in India fell too, the Hindus began to move. They felt that Hindu is their original religion and that Indians are Hindus, not Muslims. Hence, Hindutva ideology was adopted by the Hindus, and started to hate and pledge revenge to the Muslims. There were attempts to wipe the Muslims in India especially in the northern part of India, for example, Baranas riot in 1809. The Hindu extremism intensified after the political parties in India began to promote the Hindutva ideology as well. Hindutva ideology adopted by the political parties such as: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hindutva ideology adopted by both political parties in India with the domination of Hindu in India had promoted the communalism. It was a bummer for the Muslims because they had less political power than the Hindus. Many attempts based on the Hindu Nationalism ideology done by Hindu political party such as BJP, for instance, the uniform civil code. It was a disaster for the Muslims because the law proposed by BJP was all in favor of Hindus, for example, the divorce and marriage codes based on Hindu. The Muslims were forced to follow the rules if they want to stay in India. Furthermore, BJP’s ideological stance had caused the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 (Nandrajog 2010). Hatred between Muslims and Hindus is unavoidable and inevitable. This event had raised the tensions between Hindus and Muslims until now. Although the Hindu supremacy alongside with the Hindutva ideology has clearly shown the communalism in India, however this would not happen if the British did not intervene and sow the seeds hatred, and if the Muslims did not raise the tension a while ago. The British involvement The British had stayed in India for a long time, with the main objective of trading goods. As time passed by, the British realized that they had a large power in India and began to conquer regions and controlled it. The British set up education system in India to educate the people. Yet, because of the Muslims’ pride with the Mughal Empire, they refused every British policy including the education system. On the flip side, the Hindus used the opportunity to make them educated. Refer to Kumar (1990): However, because of their general grouse against the British government, the Muslims did not take English language kindly. Thus this led the Muslims remained backward, their literary growth was stopped and they lapsed into ignorance and backwardness. On the flip side, Hindus took this seriously and began to make progress. As a result many Hindus were qualified to work in the administrative jobs. Hindus were far greater than the Muslims, created a sense of frustration among the Muslims. Jealousy of the Muslims against the Hindus had shaped communalism a while ago. Thus, communalism has been shaped during the British involvement and intervention in India. Moreover, referred to Justice Katju statements in Adil Mohd (2012) work: As far as the question you asked about how was India before 1857, before 1857 there was no communal problem, there were yes religious differences but not communal problems. There is no history of and such communal conflict. It indicates that there must be an event that changed the Indian society, which I suppose was the British involvement and intervention. Kumar (1990) also writes: The unity of the Hindus and Muslims was once a big trouble for the British during the uprising in 1857-1858. The mutiny in 1857 had changed everything in India. The idea of Divide and Rule came up to avoid further unity. The policy had divided each community, especially between the Muslims and Hindus. This division has led Muslims and Hindus oppose each other, which helped the British maintain their control and position in India. Kumar (1990) explained further the British intervention in shaping communalism: Sir Syeh Ahmad played a vital role in shaping communalism of the Muslims against the Hindus. He belonged to the Mughal official family, and entered the British East India Company service. He believed the Muslims’ backwardness lay in the traditional narrow-mindedness should be eliminated and therefore he wanted the Muslims to acquire the Western style of education and thus to widen their outlook. He made the relationship between the British and the Muslims strong, and the Muslims tend to be loyal to the British†¦ His views were not communal at all at first, but then the efforts he made in order to win the favour of the British rulers pushed him and his Aligarh Movement into being communal†¦ Till the founding of Indian National Congress, he was a true nationalist. But with the founding of INC, he began to be anti-Hindu communalist. In his opinion INC was a Hindu institution, and he had became suspicious and jealous of the Hindu advancement. Not being satisfied with this, he then found Indian Patriotic Association in 1888 with the support of the British to oppose the National movement. It shows that Sir Syed Ahmad was the British puppet to oppose the National movement and the British were the one that sow the seeds of hatred among the Muslims against the Hindus. By 1906, sponsored by British Raj, All Muslim League formed. The British sponsored the creation of communal party. Moreover, The British sow seeds of poisons in the minds of Hindus and Muslims, and caused a lot of clash between them until 1947 where the Muslims, led by All League Muslims, separated themselves. Political clash between Muslims and Hindus in India The founding of All-India Muslim League was emerged from Aligarh Movement. Aligarh Movement’s objective was to promote a modern education for the Muslims. Later on, the goal has changed to protect and to unite the Muslims in India. When the Hindu extremism began to intensify, All-India Muslim League became as a mean of Muslims’ voice. The politic parties based on religion in India did not unite both opposition but make it far worse. Realizing the facts that Indian National Congress was a Hindu Institution, the communalism in Muslims side began to rise. When the Muslim League failed to win representative seats in the 1937 elections, it became clear that the Muslims had less power in India. 1930, the leader of AIML, who was Muhammad Iqbal demanded the partition of Muslim state in India and then the two-nation theory became popular among the Muslims. Under Mohammed Ali Jinnah, they demanded separation between Muslims and Hindus with two-nation theory. The theory stated that India should be separated into two regions; Hindu India and Islam India. He also persuaded Muslims that a Hindu-dominated India would never, as he put it, give them â€Å"justice† (Murphey 2009). The idea was also that autonomous area of Muslims to be own country but connected to India economically. The political clash between INC and All India Muslim League increased the tension between the Hindus and the Muslims. Direct Action Day in Calcutta, August 1946 was one of the consequences of the political clash. This was the day when the Muslim League had planned general strike to protest rejection of the June 16th Cabinet Mission Plan by the Congress Party and to assert its demand for a separate homeland during the Indian Freedom Struggle against the British Raj. Almost 4,000 people lost their lives within 72 hours, and raised the hatred between Muslims and Hindus (N. P. ) The partition of India in July 1947, which created a new nation Pakistan, was inevitable, yet created conflicts rather than peace between Muslims and Hindus. Almost 2 millions died because of the migration. The vivisection of Mother India angered Hindus, making communalism on Hindu side rise. Muslims who moved to Pakistan or Hindus who moved to India became the victims of the partition of India. In the conclusion, it is really clear that the British involvement intervention in India and the political clash between Muslims Hindus has led the communalism to rise in India, even until now. Even though the extremeness of Hindus and the rise of Hindutva ideology movement was the main cause of the communalism in India, it would not happen if the British did not trigger the fire of hatred between Muslims Hindus and if the Muslims did not cause further political tension.