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- This article deals with the use of the word communalism in South Asia, as a name for a force separating different communities based on some form of social or sectarian discrimination. See the article communalism for the use of the word to denote a force uniting people into a community, as it is used in the rest of the world.
Communalism is used in South Asia to denote attempts to promote primarily religious stereotypes between groups of people identified as different communities and to stimulate violence between those groups.
The sense given to this word in South Asia is represented by the word sectarianism outside South Asia.
The concept of religious sects as "exclusive communities" was inherited from the Islamic law concept of Millats that the English inherited from the Mughals.
The concept of Millats is a development of the Islamic concept of Ummah, with its consequent separatism and self-segregation.
Communalism is mainly between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia as well as between Dharmic religions and recently Anti-Christian activities.
Political parties are generally considered to play an important role in stimulating, supporting and/or suppressing communalism.
Examples of communalist violence, with strong motivations based on religious identity allegedly encouraged by politicians, include:
- the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots in which the Congress party allegedly played a role in the killing of about 3000 Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi
- events during the 1990s leading to the Gujarat riots during which the organisations and political parties known as Sangh Parivar were alleged to play important roles in encouraging the killings
- the activity of the Wahabist Tabligh-e-Islam and other Muslim extremist groups.
In Lebanon, communalism, taïfiyya in Arabic, is a derogatory term for the political system based on religious communities.
See also
External links
- Communalism Combat magazine
- Communalism in India by Teesta Setalvad
- Analyses of communalism in India
- Coalition against Communalism
- Notes on the Muslim Question in India Articles on Muslims and caste, anti-Muslim communalism, and related topics.
"Communalism (South Asia)"