Communal harmony and internal security of India are interlinked

The word Communal gains its origin from the word ‘commune’, which means a group of people sharing some commonality living together taking care of each other’s interests and needs. Communalism in a narrow sense, especially in India, is seen as feeling of belongingness to one religion. It is seen as love for one’s own religion and hatred for others. But broadly, communalism is a feeling of competition amongst different groups of people, for differential reasons. The communes formed on the basis of religion, or caste, or common rituals, culture etc, all differentiate people and highlights them as different groups distinct from others.

Community one belongs to is a form of identity one carries. Formation of different communities was a hallmark of human civilization, because without commune formations, communications and interaction of man with man would not have developed and made man the superior most animal on earth. It is the human interaction that led to the growth of a society and further growth and maturity into more complex societies. A person if left in solitude after birth would not have any purpose in life unless he is attached to some sort of group of human beings. The whole reason of man’s birth is explained in his attachment to a particular community.

A healthy competition amongst different groups of people is what makes life possible and gives meaning to innumerous chores that human beings perform, the relationships and bonds they share with their near and dear ones.

Communalism is the negative aspect of community life. When feeling of attachment , commitment and love extends to the limit when it hurts the freedom of life of other community and their feelings, faiths and beliefs. When there is a competition of proving the superiority of one group over the other, this is when a healthy society turns into a group of communes competing with each other, to denounce the faith, beliefs and cultures of any other group than its own.

Communal harmony in India had been a question ever since its existence is known to mankind. Pluralism has been the hallmark of Indian subcontinent and its culture and society. India – the nation was a concept mostly unknown to India and Indians, until British forcefully for their own administrative advantage collected the different kingdoms together under one tag called India. Indian soil has been inhabited by people of different origins ,in addition to the native indigenous people, like Aryans, Mughals etc. India thus has never been a single culture or single religion land.

Different communities, languages, customs, culture, rituals and the life of India with huge variety and vibrant nature has been a defining feature , demarcating it from the rest of the world. But this should be noted that the communalism in its present form was not the differentiating feature of Indian society. History witnessed harmony and coexistence and a feeling of brotherhood between different religions, cultures. Indologists have discussed about the facts like caste-tribe continuum, reflecting the exchange of culture between the caste structure and those living in forests ever since the times of the various epics. Consider the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, there is continous exchange of people living in the main stream villages and those in the villages. Inter-caste marriages have created a number of caste and religious groups that they may claim to know their descent but it can barely be proved, due to prolonged coexistence , India is a land of all the people who live in it. No one can claim if he is a Brahmin or a hindu today, then his ten ancestors shared the same identity too.

But today, communalism is reaching its extreme due to reasons, new and old, prolonged and newly emerging. Today’s communalism is more sinister than what it had ever been in the history of India. It is not just the tussle between religions , rather, the issues like regionalism , naxalism, sons of soils, prolonged casteism even after 64 years of independence in newer and changed forms are a reflection of man’s quest for more and more, in terms of fame, name, benefits from their locality or superiority.

The whole sanctity of India’s existence and its culture has been hampered due to the ever rising and multiplying issues different forms of communalism. The freedom fighters and the constitution framers dreamt of a free India, with its people master of their own will, living together and enshrining India with its “Unity in Diversity” character. The dream of our freedom fighters to make Indian into a happy and sovereign nation seems to be shattered at the stake of communal tensions.

The issues of internal security in India is not merely due to religious tensions, but due to differential distribution of benefits of the progress made by India since Independence. The internal issues India faced just after independence and thereafter were different from what they are today. The prolonged increase in tension between the hindus and the muslims ever since independence is as much due to external unsurgency as much it is from internal competition posed by the right wing extremism , questioning the identity of the minority community, and the historical deprivation.  The unequal distribution of benefits has created more communities striving for their historic right as the citizens of India. The rising Maoism and naxalism in the less developed and the poorest of the states in India is a sign of lack of governance and political and social will in the society to develop a more equitable society.

Internal security of India can be ensured if the progress India is making takes into account the needs of the low lying and deprived sections of the society. Indian economy is the third fastest growing economy in the World, the progress we are making is not less as compared to what britishers left us with after draining the wealth of our nation in a course of two centuries of rule over us. Policies made for minorities , women , below poverty line people and other targeted sections of the society, are never implemented successfully, due to the parasite called corruption.

Those siphoning the amount spent by the government fail to understand that prolonged deprivation can not stretch forever. Like the dalits, and the subaltern groups are developing a consciousness of their existence, power and strength of their existence and their rights and the citizen of the nation, forming lobbys, those causing issues hampering the internal security of India have been suppressed and deprived historically, and its time they are given their well deserved right or pay price of marginalizing them.

The calm that persisted in the country after the long awaiting ayodhya verdict, has proved that India is maturing. Indian youth is aware that there are more important issues than violence and fighting over religion and making it the reason for disturbing the peace in the country, said the finance minister. But it is important that we understand that more sinister forms of communalism present and what consequences they can have on Indian society as a whole in the larger run.