UPSC Mains 2018 GS Paper 1 Q20: model answer

The Sachar Committee (2006) found Muslims, about 14% of India's population, held under 5% of government jobs. Such gaps, and the competition for power that feeds on them, help explain why communal tension flares where it does.

Communalism

An ideology that sees a religious community as a political unit with interests opposed to others.

Power struggle

• Colonial period: separate electorates (1909) turned communities into vote banks; leaders competed for seats and posts.
• Post-1947: polarisation before elections; studies such as Paul Brass's 'institutionalised riot system' and Steven

Wilkinson's work link riots to electoral competition.

• Control of local resources: land, markets, temple or mosque committees.

Relative deprivation

• A community that feels it is falling behind others turns resentment into communal identity.
• Economic competition among artisans and traders: the Moradabad (1980) and Bhiwandi (1970, 1984) riots occurred in towns with sharp trade rivalry.
• Unemployed youth are easy recruits for communal groups.
• The majority can also feel 'relative deprivation' when told that minorities are appeased.
• In Assam, competition over land and jobs with migrants has repeatedly taken a communal colour, as in Nellie (1983).

Other factors

• Historical memory, partition trauma and myths; rumours and social media (Muzaffarnagar 2013 began with a doctored video).
• Weak policing and delayed justice, which leave victims bitter and rioters confident.
• Ghettoisation in cities, which reduces everyday contact between communities and lets stereotypes grow.
• Communal polarisation by organisations on all sides, using festivals and processions as shows of strength.

Way forward

The two causes usually work together: deprivation provides the anger and power struggle provides the direction. Inclusive growth, mixed neighbourhoods, impartial policing (Prakash Singh guidelines, 2006), quick trials and civic education about our shared past attack both roots.