UPSC Mains 2017 GS Paper 1 Q19: model answer

Every year lakhs of warkaris walk to Pandharpur singing abhangs of Tukaram, a faith that unites caste and class. That is religiosity. Communalism begins when faith is turned into a political boundary against another community.

Religiosity

• Personal and collective devotion: belief, ritual, pilgrimage, ethics.
• Inward looking and compatible with respect for other faiths (Kabir, Nanak, the Sufis).
• Concerned with salvation, ethics and community service, as in langars at gurdwaras open to all.

Communalism

• The belief that people of one religion share common secular interests opposed to those of other religions (Bipan Chandra).
• Moves from communal identity to competition and, at its extreme, hostility and violence.
• Driven by political mobilisation, not by theology.
• Uses symbols, processions, rumours and selective history to build fear of the other community.

Key differences

• Religiosity is about God; communalism is about power.
• Religiosity can coexist with pluralism; communalism needs an 'other'.
• One is private and spiritual, the other public and political.
• Religiosity can inspire service and reform, as with Gandhi's faith; communalism inspires suspicion.
• Religiosity accepts many paths to truth; communalism claims one community's interests must prevail.

One example of transformation

The Ram Janmabhoomi issue began as devotion attached to a sacred site. From the late 1980s it became a mass political campaign; the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 was followed by riots in Mumbai and elsewhere that killed hundreds. Faith was turned into a marker of political identity on both sides.

Lesson

The Supreme Court's 2019 verdict settled the title dispute peacefully, and the calm response showed society's capacity for restraint. Keeping religion personal, punishing hate speech and teaching our shared history are the best guards against the slide from devotion to division.