What is communalism?
Communalism means for a community, for Indians it means the social and religious barriers between Hindus and Muslims which have hindered India from building a harmonious nation. Out of communalism grew communal politics and out of that grew more communalism. The culmination of which was seen in the form of communal violence and partition of India.
It is very difficult to attribute any one reason to the growth of communalism in India. Different scholars have tried to make different elements and circumstances more or less responsible according to their own predilections. The different reasons that have been given can be divided into two main parts –
Muslim Communalism: A Legacy of India's Social Background
1. Two nation theory
Some scholars argue that India was never a nation, but was merely a community of different castes and societies, and that Hindu-Muslim interaction was "a clash of two civilizations whose languages, literary bases, ideas of education And the philosophical sources were all different.” Moreover, the religious and social differences between the two societies were so sharp and fundamental that even after living side by side for seven hundred years, they did not diminish in any way.
2. 'Economic backwardness' of Muslims
Marxist scholars have attributed this to the 'economic backwardness' of Muslims and the 'delay in the emergence of the middle class'. The new Muslim intellectuals and the upper class saw that business, finance and government posts were all monopolized by the Hindus. To protect their class interests, the Muslim intellectuals gave a communal twist to the Muslim awakening and demanded separate constituencies, representation and reservation in posts. Since economic questions are basic questions, the exploiting class misled the public and gave their frustration the form of communal expression.
3. Lack of modernity and fear among Muslims
Nehru considered communalism to be a middle class question and he attributed it to the 'lack of modernity' among Hindus and Muslims. According to him, there was a difference of a 'generation' or more in the emergence of Hindu and Muslim middle classes and these differences are manifesting themselves in political, economic and other aspects. It is this difference which psychologically creates fear among Muslims."
4. Theory of Elite class struggle
Some western scholars have told communalism to be the cause of conflict between specific classes in a multi-class society. They consider communalism to be the same as communal politics. According to him, the basic conflict was not between the Hindu and the Muslim societies, but between the rival elite class in both the religions who had become greedy for power.
5. Religious reformist movement
It has been said that the emergence of communalism was inevitable in the Hindu and Muslim reform movements of the 19th century. Wahhabis' crusade against all non-Muslims, so that Darul Islam could be established in the world, was as hateful to Hindus as Swami Dayanand ji's saying, "Purify non-Hindus and make the whole world Aryan", Muslims Even Viveka-Nanda's reference to ancient Indian achievements and saying that this is the real Indian spirit was unacceptable to Muslims because they often looked to the history of West Asia for their tradition and identity. .
6. Use of religious symbols in the national movement
Some scholars criticize their national leaders for using religious proverbs and symbols in their writings and speeches. For example, these people started calling people like Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and Guru Govind Singh as national heroes and Muslim rulers like Akbar, Shah Jahan as foreigners. This created some resentment in the Muslim mind. Similarly, the national symbols mentioned by Gandhiji in his speeches were mostly taken from Hindu sources. He often used the word 'Ram Rajya' for the best and ideal administration.
Muslim Communalism: A Gift/Result of British Colonialism
1. Theory of communal triangle
Some writers presented the theory of communal triangle and said that between Hindus and Muslims the British rulers introduced themselves and made a triangle whose main base was themselves. Emphasis has been placed on the fact that the imperialist rulers promoted communal disunity through official machinations and manipulations as this fit in with their famous dictum "Divide and rule". The British called the victory of the Battle of Plassey the Plassey Revolution and claimed that they had freed the Hindus from the slavery of the Muslims. But he was deeply disappointed with the Hindu-Muslim unity of 1857, and Hunter, in 1871, wrote a book called Indian Muslmans, enumerating the benefits of separation of Muslims from Hindus. The Aligarh Movement and the Muslim League were encouraged by the British to divide the Indians.
2. Constitutional System
Some scholars have attributed this to the constitutional changes taking place in the Indian structure and its profound effects on communal politics. Ever since the introduction of such a representation system in which numbers mattered, the process of polar division started in the country, especially in a country where many religions were prevalent. Thus the introduction of separate electorates by the Mitto-Morley reforms in 1909 and the spread of the same system by the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935 encouraged communal feelings.
3. Historiography of India
Anglo-Indian writers of history tried to read or write Indian history and culture from Hindu and Muslim point of view. Indian scholars also followed this, which encouraged communal thinking. For example, ancient Indian history was termed as 'Hindu era' and medieval Indian history as 'Muslim era' and the period of modern India as 'British India', violating all the norms of history, it was explained that in all medieval history, religious politics was the only guiding factor. In this way one past of India was separated from the other past.
4. Use of protection of government posts
After the destruction of Indian industry and trade, the government was the biggest employer, where educated Indians could get positions to earn their living. This great patronage in military and civilian positions was used by the ruling class to promote communalism. Our national leaders were well aware of the harmful effects of this temptation, but they were powerless before the question of hunger.
There is definitely some grain of truth in all these interpretations. The form of the communal question kept changing according to the circumstances of the time and the new political conditions. In this way, none of the above-mentioned reasons can be called the basic or fundamental reason. But all these had a cumulative effect which gave rise to multifaceted communalism.
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