Political of communalism
- Bombay Populer Prakashan 1989
- 226p.
Communalism has been closely linked with India's socio-political development and has been looked with apprehension as a major threat to the unify and integrity of the nation and its secular ideal. Prior to independence communalism and its major manifestation-communal riots were imputed to the two-nation theory and the after the partition of the country India has been plagued with frequent and ghastly communal riots. Naturally the question often asked is why should there be Hindu- Muslim riots after Pakistan is created. Attempts have been made to explain this problem by different sections of society-- politicians, intellectuals and social scientists--in different ways. Dr. Zenab Banu in the present study makes a departure from the traditional explanations of communalism. She contests the theory that religious fundamentalism provokes the riots and states that it is essentially a political and economic problems . She bases-her argument on-the - strength of empirical data collected from the riot affected cities of Ahmedabad and Udaipur and concludes that communalism in the form of religious prejudices, tensions and riots has roots in class antagonism and struggle for the acquisition of political and economic power. She points out that communalism has assumed new shape and dimension in free India and is quite different from pre-partition days. The power seekers are exploiting the illiterate and tradition-bound masses by manipulating communal feelings for their own selfish ends.