How does the state play a role in communalism?

 Communalism often leads to communal violence between different religious communities. There are several examples of communal violence in India. Communal violence is also result of intermingling of religion and politics. In the post-Independent India, communalism has become part of the competitive electoral politics. According to K.N. Pannikar (1990), politics and communalism have become complementary, reinforcing each other in the post-Independence period. It can devise policies which can either stop or encourage communalism. It can also play partisan role in communal politics. The nature of state’s role on communalism depends on the nature of pressure of social groups on it, and composition of the personnel in the state institutions, and political context. Thus, the state functions under the pressure of different social groups and classes. These also include religious communities. As you have read above, the colonial rule promoted religious divisions: the policy was based on preferential treatment and discrimination. According to C.P. Bhambhri, the post-Independence period inherited the legacy of religious backwardness and religious conflict. The context of pre-Independence period – the state attitude of preference and discrimination, mediation by the British in the 1940s between the separatists and nationalists became the context of the post-Independence state in India. The state in India is placed in paradoxical situation: on the one hand it has to act through rules and regulations, new technology; on the other hand, it has to deal with the society where symbols, rituals and inherited social regulatory mechanisms exist. Indian state loses loyalty of the masses if it is perceived to be acting against traditional practices – Muslim personal law (1985), Operation Blue Star (1984), Sabrimala (2019). In a democratic society such as India, the state functions under pressure of different social forces.It becomes a site of multiple ideologies and tendencies – including secularists and communalists. Like the space in the society, the state also becomes site of contests between different ideologies such as communalism and secularism. In the post-Independence period, the Indian state has followed the strategy for managing conflicts – of oppression and cooptation: it makes compromises with communalism and casteism. And the exploiting classes have exploited religious sentiments to legitimize exploitation in the society. Zoya Hasan (1990) argues that the state has surrendered to the pressure of religious fundamentalist in Muslim Women’s Bill and Ram Janma Bhumi case

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