What is Communalism ? Muralidharan M , a refreshingly insightful anti Fascist Left intellectual and teacher who died young in1995 while teaching at School of Social Science, MG University Kottayam had this working definition in his seminal draft essay on Hindu Community formation in Kerala under Colonial Modernity A whale is not a fish : Some conceptual distinction Communalism is the making of a social and political identity basing itself on religion and constructing itself against other religious identities .The emphasis is here onSTRUCTURING of an identity through activities and not on the STRUCTURE of a consciousness that could be judged to be true or false .Such an initial definition marks itself away from two dominat paradigms of communalism today ie, the liberal (Nehruvian ) and Marxist paradigms A key difficulty with these studies on communalism is that they treat its social charcter casually says Muralidharan after examing the various strands in both the liberal and Marxist paradigms .He also goes on to note a third tendency represented by Liberation theologists or those like Ashis Nandy who believe pre modern Christianity or Hinduism were pluralistic and non communal . In the 20 years since Muralidharan wrote incisive exploration the religious organizations have only become more popular and more mass based .The largest of them Sangh Parivar has captured state power through elections .Can we have a better historical understanding of Communallism in the light of this development ? Meanwhile , Muralis critique of both Nehruvian , Marxist and Ashis Nandy type paradigms of communalism in the wake of the demolition of Babri Masjid by RSS provide a strong advance ground for more incisive understanding of the looming threat of Fascism with Indian characteristics that we are facing with rise of the sane RSS to power in Delhi with a huge electoral mandate .
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 02:13:37 +0000
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