Why the growth of communalism in India

Communalism arises among the society when a particular religious or sub-religious group tries to promote its own interests at the expense of others. In simple terms, it can be defined as to distinguish people on the basis of religion.

Following are the factors responsible for the growth of Communalism in India:

(I) Divide and Rule Policy of the British:

The British rulers adopted the policy of 'Divide and Rule' to strengthen their roots while living in India. They divided the people of various communities of India and spread the feeling of distrust among them and hence they sowed the seeds of communalism in India.

(ii) Political Organisations:

Different communal organisations are found in India which have created hatred among the people of various religious communities by propagating, and hence they are the root cause of communalism.

(iii) Inertia indifferent Government:

When the government does not take proper action at the proper time, communalism spreads among the subjects. Sometimes the government favours on the religion and leave others which create differences.

(iv) Ineffective Handling of Communal Riots:

Sometimes the state governments have been proved ineffective to curb the communal riots in their respective states. It also results in spreading the communalism.

As the result of the above factors, communalism is raising its ugly face in India after the Independence and also creating great problems even in the working of Indian political system.

Remedies:

1. The remedy of constitutional safeguards to root out the chronic malaise of communalism and casteism shall not have desired effect unless it is tackled by society itself.

2. Efforts should be made by the enlightened citizens to discourage the communal and caste based forces from the social, political and electoral process in order to make these forces irrelevant. They are to be opposed not to be appeased.

3. Communal carnage and caste wars should be dealt strictly with new strategies.

4. To usher an era of social equity and sarva dharma sambhava the people of India should not mix religion and caste with politics to attain the goal of common brotherhood for the unity and integrity of the nation.