Communalism in India

 A negative development was the rise of Hindu-Muslim sectarianism during this period which was more intense than ever before. Large-scale anti-Hindu violence broke out in September 1924 at Kohat in the North-West Frontier Province. 155 people were killed. Between April and July 1926, violence broke out three times in Calcutta. 138 people were killed. In the same year there were clashes in Dhaka, Patna, Rawalpindi and Delhi. During 1923-27, UP was a state plagued by communal strife, with more than 91 communal riots. The reason given outside is the demand of Muslims not to play musical instruments in front of mosques. Hindu pressure to ban cow slaughter. Religious organizations sprung up like umbrellas. Political alliances are also formed on religious lines.

Even during 1919-22 when Hindu Muslim brotherhood was at its peak, Congress and Khilapat remained separate organizations. They are together because of the alliance between the leaders. When leaders fight there are internal divisions. Khilapat brought the religious conservative Mullahs into politics on a large scale. The 1921 December Program of the Jamiat-al-Ulama-yi-Hind envisaged an independent India as a confederation of different religions. Congress campaign is far away from secular sentiments especially at lower levels. The concept of Ramarajya is not meaningfully attractive to Muslims. The alliance between the leaders of the Congress Khilapat was weakened by Gandhi's unilateral abdication in February 1922. It continued until the beginning of 1925. In December 1923, Muhammad Dali, who presided over the Kakinada Congress Conference, met Gandhi with communal strife.                                                                                                                               He disagreed. Kemal Atatürk's abolition of the Attaman Caliphate in 1924 watered down the main issue of the caliphate.

As for the differences between politicians and the educated public, a key factor behind the rise of communalism in the 1920s lay in the shared logic of the post-1919 political structure. The Montford Reforms broadened the right to vote. It has not only protected but increased the special constituency. So it is an inherent feature of the system that politicians mobilize followers and entice them by making promises to their religious, regional and caste groups. Another factor related to this was the significant expansion of education in the 1920s. But there is no corresponding increase in employment opportunities. "Protests intensified due to lack of opportunities as expected by educated people." (P. Hardy Muslims in British India pg-204). This sequence began in the 1880s. By this time it had become more widespread. The stampede for scarce resources has fueled communal animosities. Socially, economic and social tensions at the lower levels were transformed into distorted forms of communal hatred, for example the March 1931 riots in a city like Kanpur, partly because Hindu traders and industrialists flourished in the 1920s, while the demand for Muslim handlooms declined. A Bengal government report of 1926 stated that religious tensions erupted in Memon Singh's countryside due to economic rivalry between Hindu landlords and Muhammadan talukadars. The entire swarajist leadership in Bengal, including the leftist Subhash, took a pro-zamindari stance in the intermittent actions on lease reform from 1923 to 1928. Thus the Muslims became more and more directly responsible for alienation.

The doctrines of rapidly developing religious institutions provided a link between the elite and the common people. Muslim religious organizations from 1923 spread Tabligh (propaganda), Tanjim (organizations, 1924 Kohat clashes, revival of Muslim League as Khilafat institutions declined, assassination of Swami Shradhananda in 1926 - boosted Muslim sectarianism. 1924 Lahore Conference presided over by Jinnah (first conference held separately from Congress since 1918 ), the Muslim League referred to the demand for separate constituencies as well as a federation of states with autonomy to protect Muslim majority areas from the threat of Hindu supremacy.                                                                                                                    It should be noted that this was a response to communalism. Tabligha (propaganda) formation of Tanzim was a refinement of Arya society, responses to events. Purification, events began after the forced conversions of the Morgas. In 1923 Shradhananda expanded the Shuddhi and events to western U.P. Malkana Rajput, Gujars and Banias who had converted to Islam were expanded with the determination to convert them back to Hinduism. Madan Mohan Malavya along with other Punjab leaders. The 'Hindu Mahasabha' started at the Haridwara Kumbh Mela in 1915 remained inactive or stagnated during the non-cooperation years. Restoration began in 1922-23. The August Conference of 1923 included a program of purification. Called for Hindu Defense Forces. The Arya Samaj reformers and Sanatana Dharma Sabha traditionalists formed a Hindu religious event with Malavya as the president. Due to the emphasis on Hindu-Hindi connection in the Mahasabha campaign, the campaign was mainly limited to North India (86% of the delegates in the 1923 conference were from U.P., Delhi, Punjab and Bihar, and only 6.6% of the delegates from Bengal, Bombay and Madras combined). Then a very important development occurred. Tilak's old follower Munte's associate K.B. Rashtriya Swayam Sevaka Sangam was founded in Nagpur in 1925 by Hedgewar.

Though ideologically secularists, non-reformists, as well as swarajists - failed to curb Hindu communalism. Moreover, they failed to distance themselves from the religious institutions. Following the Kohat clashes, Gandhi went on a 21-day hunger strike at Muhammad Dali's Delhi residence in September 1924. He temporarily eased the tension through a unity conference of leaders. He condemned in strong terms the barbaric act of sacrificing the lives of fellow human beings for the life of a cow. (Young India 1924 May 29. However, people like Purushottam Das Tandon from U.P. were in close contact with Malvya. Gandhi also kept in touch with Malvya. In places like Banaras, the Swarajya Party and the Hindu Sabha functioned as a single entity. Malvya effectively controlled the Hindus from 1925 onwards due to his feud with Motilal Nehru. used. Led the Independent Congress Party in collaboration with Lajapati Rai. As part of the election preparations, as in Allahabad in 1925-26, hostility was encouraged in favor of Hindu: sectarianism. In Allahabad, Muslims strongly demanded that musical instruments not be played in front of mosques for at least five or ten minutes during prayers. Their appeal was rejected. In Bengal, C.R. Das's Hindu-Muslim Pact was abrogated in 1926. Pact   Sasmal, who tried to protect him, was defeated in the Midnapore elections the following year by his Congress colleagues who "received the slogan that Hinduism was in danger. Before the 1926 elections, Motilal Nehru was pro-Muslim. He was a beef eater", making religious appeals at times to appeal to Hindu Mahasabha groups.

In the elections of 1926, the Hindu Mahasabha and the responsible co-operationists contested together, and the strength of the Swarajists was reduced except in Madras. In Bengal Swarajists won 35 out of 47 Hindu seats. But out of 39 Muslim seats they managed to win only one. Memories of the mid-1920s later alienated Muslims from the close of 1930-34. The real winner was British imperialism. The Hindu sectarian leadership was no less than the Muslim League in supporting the British rule. From Madanmohan Malaviya, who was known as the Hindi-Hindu evangelist and strongly opposed non-cooperation in 1921, to Shyamprasad Mukherjee, who served as Bengal minister in August 1942 and later founded the 'Janasangh' even as the British rulers were drowning the Quit India movement in bloodshed, they served the cause of British imperialism to the best of their ability.