‘Communalism’ refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious identity. Chauvinism is an attitude which considers one’s own group as legitimate and worthy while others as inferior and illegitimate. In simple language, it is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion. Since India is a multi-religion country, communalism is often used as a tool to serve the selfish motive of the politicians.
Communalism is a sensitive issue in context of India because it is a recurrent source of violence and tensions. Communal riots are conducted to save the false pride of the respective communities. People got to the extent of looting, raping, and massacring others in the name of violence. Some examples of communalism riots are anti-Sikh riots of Delhi in 1984 under congress government and anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 under BJP government.
