General understanding of the implication of communalism and its relation with internal security of India?

 India preached non- violence to the world through Mahatma Gandhi. It is an irony that the country which stood as a role model has been suffering from the curse of communal violence. The violence in this context is considered as communal because it is orchestrated event which is based on the collusion and involvement of political leaders who employ the tactics of religious appeasement.

Communalism is defined as a strong allegiance or loyalty to one’s own community rather than society at large

Abdul Ahmed observed that communalism is a societal phenomenon featured by the religion of two communities which often lead to animosity, strain and rioting between them

 Causes of Communalism which Disturb Internal Security

1. Electoral Incentives:

The political parties often arouse people’s religious sentiments and identity for their vote bank. The electoral incentive may not be the only cause but it does leads to communal violence. Politicians in electoral races generally sensitize people about their ethnic character which favour their party. This sensitisation about the ethnic character leads to communal violence and riots.

2.Economic Factors:

s. During the communal riots, the Muslims experience disproportionate loss and damage and become victims of plundering and looting of their business dealing and properties which indicate a vicious mechanism of shielding Hindus merchants and traders in dominating the market competition. This leads to economically motivated violence against Muslims by Hindus.

3. Religious Consciousness:  

The involvement of religion in violence has considerably increased as people give more importance to their religious identity than national identity. In the present modern world, religion and violence are viewed as a trend that goes together hand in hand. For many western worlds, Islam is considered as a religion which is intrinsically violence. The religion is used for lashing out aggression when people consider their religion as supreme and do not have compassion for other religions.

However, religion is not the only cause of violence as if these were to be true then every town or city having Hindu- Muslim demography would experience widespread riots and aggression. But this also does not mean that we can address communal violence as non-religious. 

4.Past History of Violence in India:

A communal and distorted presentation of Indian history was a foremost means for spreading communal hatred and feeling and primary element of communal ideology. The communal interpretation of history is basis of communalism. The communalist recognises Indian history as elongated chronicle of Hindu-Muslim conflict. Hindus and Muslims were primarily segregated into separate blocks whose relations were unsympathetic, sour and distrustful

 Consequences of Communalism Which Disturb Internal Security

1. Loss of Umpteen Human Live:Communal riots or violence have always witnessed the perishing of precious human lives. In 2013, communal attacks in Muzaffarnagar in which close to 50 people were killed and several hundred people received injuries.

2.Infringement of Human Rights:Every citizen of India has been guaranteed under Article 21 right to life and personal liberty under the Constitution of India but these rights are denied to people. The communal violence is an expression of such denial of rights where people are brutally murdered and killed in the name of religion. The preamble of India declares India to be secular country with no discrimination based on religion. The constitution also guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens but it is curtailed for narrow beneficial electoral interest.

3.Displacement of People:Displaced person means a person who has been compelled to leave his or her place of ordinary residence. Communal violence compels people to run for saving their life. They are forced to leave their hometown or land in which they have settled for generations and with which they are emotionally attached or depended upon. In 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal violence at least 55,000 people have been displaced.

4.Impact on Economy::Communal violence and riots leads to devastation of property and interruption of economic activity. It causes shutting down of business and lower economic productivity. Business, trade and commerce can be carried on only in peaceful and serene environment. Every individual fears for their life so a person cannot conduct its economic activity in disorderly and anti-social society. Mob generally attack public properties like buses, buildings, and loot and plunder shops and showrooms. 

5.Brutality against Women:The women are the worst sufferers as they face dual victimisation of communal violence. Firstly, they suffer from brutal attacks and violence and secondly, some people take advantage of this lawless situation by committing ghastly act of sexual assault and rape. Communal violence at the time of partition of India witnessed women being abducted, raped, passed on by one man to another, kept as mistress and sold as cattles which shows the degraded position of woman. Woman has always been targeted in communal attacks whether it was Punjab during Anti-Sikh riots or Gujarat or riots in Muzzafarnagar in U.P. as woman is being used to fan the feeling of revulsion and hatred.

6.Loss of Faith in State Machinery:

The occurrence of communal attack and violence shake people’s trust and faith in the state institutions. It is the responsibility of the state to protect the lives of its citizens and maintain peace and order in the society. However, the incidence of communal violence is the failure of the state to perform its duties or sometimes neglect to perform its duties

. Laws Dealing with Communalism in India

Constitutional Provisions Dealing with Communalism

The Indian constitution represents elusive equilibrium between fundamental rights and obligation of the state to safeguard public order and non-discrimination. The preamble declares state’s commitment to secularism and people’s commitment to secure to all its citizens justice, social, economic, political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and of opportunity; and to promoteamong them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and theunity and integrity of the Nation

The Supreme Court in S. R Bommai v Union of India explained the concept of secularism as “religious tolerance and equal treatment of all religious groups and protection of their life and property and of the places of their worship are an essential part of secularism enshrined in our constitution....”

Indian Penal Code Provisions Pealing with Communalism

Any act of violence is punishable under IPC. The IPC does answer the issue of communal violence. Several provisions of IPC deal with the matter of unlawful assembly, rioting and prohibit enmity on the ground of religion.

Section . 153A punishes promotion of enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community

6153A. Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony: [(1) Whoever- (a) by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, 

Beside Constitutional provisions and Indian Penal Code, there is no specific law which deals exclusively with communal violence which challenges internal security of India. Though, a Bill has been introduced in the Parliament called Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 to combat the communal violence in the country

It can be seen that communal violence and riots have always caused enormous negative consequences in the communities in different parts of India which at times threaten the secular fabric of the country and causing plentiful fatalities and injuries, devastation of properties, displacement of lives, sexualized brutality against women, pressurize right to life and livelihood and inflicted despair and social suffering on people. As mentioned above there may be umpteen reasons for communal violence but electoral or political incentive is the major cause and government should heavily come down on it.Though there are constitutional and criminal provisions to deal with communal violence, these are not effective and hence the Parliament need to pass the Communal Violence Bill after making appropriate amendments which will serve the purpose.