Writing the Nation in India: Communalism and Historiography

Abstract

Communalism has been defined as the ‘belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion, they have, as a result, common social, political and economic interests’.¹ The group’s religion forms both the unifying and the identifying force, with everything else being subordinated to it. Crucial to this formation is, of course, the shaping of the ‘other’. As Samuel Huntington puts it, ‘We know who we are only when we know who we are not and often only when we know whom we are against.’² That is, when it is assumed that all religions are automatically opposed to each other, then, in the process of identifying oneself, all those not belonging to the group have also to be identified. Identity is sharpened in contrast, or in opposition to, something or someone else. When identity is defined in terms of religion, then there is, at some level, the creation of a social order predicated on difference, which is identified in religious terms. In such a construction, historiography becomes very important, for it creates a reality that constantly redefines and reshapes the beliefs.