Communalism in a broad sense implies blind allegiance to one’s own communal group – religious, linguistic or ethnic – rather than to the larger society or to the nation as a whole. In its extreme form, a communalist sees her own communities’ interests being jeopardised by the interests of other communities. Hence it manifests itself in hatred towards groups perceived as hostile, ultimately leading to violent attacks on other communities. (Just for understanding)

Communalism is a major internal security threat that our country is facing. It ruptures social bonhomie, creates social tensions, mutual distrust, alienates certain social groups, and creates breeding ground for further violence and harnessing of disgruntlement by forces inimical to India’s interest. The root causes of communalism are following -

Systemic Problems

• Conflict resolution mechanisms are ineffective;
• Intelligence gathered is not accurate, timely and actionable and
• Bad personnel policies - poor choice of officials and short tenures - lead to inadequate grasp of local conditions.
• The administration and the police fail to anticipate and read indicators which precipitated violence earlier;
• Even after the appearance of first signals, the administration and police are slow to react;
• Field functionaries tend to seek and wait for instructions from superiors and superiors tend to interfere in local matters undermining local initiative and authority;
• The administration and police at times act in a partisan manner and
• At times there is failure of leadership, even total abdication on the part of those entrusted with maintenance of public order.
• Rehabilitation is often neglected, breeding resentment and residual anger and
• Officials are not held to account for their failures, thus perpetuating slackness and incompetence.

Post-independence, things did not change much for Muslims, which was well substantiated with the findings of Sachar committee report. According to this report:

1. The literacy rate among Muslims is far below the national average and this gap is greater in urban areas and for women.
2. Working population ratios are lower for Muslims than any other socio-religious community and this is more so in the rural areas.
3. Moreover, Muslim workers are concentrated in self-employment- small traders, enterprises etc. due to more exposure to disruptions and damage caused by urban conflict and violence.
4. Muslims have poor access to bank credit. The average size of credit is meager and low compared to other socio-religious groups.

• Hence, among all the socio-religious communities, Muslims are the most economically vulnerable, educationally backward and financially excluded.
• State over the years has failed to wither away this vicious cycle of illiteracyunemployment-poverty despite many policies being framed to deal with the menace.
• As a consequence, youth are getting disillusioned, discontent, frustrated, looking for ways to exert pressure there by further aggravating extreme communalism.
• Hence, the demand of the situation is to act swiftly on the recommendations of the Sachar committee and create a conducive environment for the holistic
development of Muslim community. Generate awareness amongst the youth so that they don’t fall in the trap of the politics of opportunism where people for their secular gains take undue advantage of their plight.

Developmental Deficit
• In most cases, inadequate development creates genuine grievance in a community. Their grievance can then be harnessed by opportunistic communal element to breed animosity towards other groups.

Identity Politics

• It refers to mobilization of masses on the communal lines. While the other factors could be present in many places in our country. They succeed in communalising the situation only when there is political mobilisation on communal lines.
• Thus while addressing systemic flaws and developmental deficiencies, we need to address political undercurrents as well. Institutions like National Integration Councils must be better utilized in this context.