“How is religious revivalism different from communalism? Elaborate with suitable examples from the Indian context.” (2014)
The two are often confused because both put religion at the centre of public life. Religious revivalism turns inward: it seeks to renew and purify a faith. Communalism turns outward: it mobilises a religious community politically against another. Bipan Chandra (Communalism in Modern India, 1984) defined communalism as the belief that followers of a religion share common secular (political, economic, social) interests that differ from, and finally clash with, those of other religions.
Criteria-wise contrast
| Criterion | Religious revivalism | Communalism |
|---|---|---|
| Core aim | Renewal, purification, “return to roots” of a faith | Power and resources for a religious community |
| Reference point | One’s own tradition, often one’s own co-religionists | The “other” community |
| Nature | Religious, cultural, often reformist | Political ideology; religion used as an identity marker |
| Leadership | Saints, reformers, preachers | Politicians, organisations, elites |
| Relation to others | Can coexist with pluralism | Rests on mutual suspicion and exclusivity |
| Typical outcome | Schools, charity, ethical and ritual renewal | Separatism, polarisation, riots |
Revivalism in India
- Brahmo Samaj (Raja Ram Mohan Roy, 1828) and Arya Samaj (Swami Dayanand Saraswati, 1875, with its call “back to the Vedas”) sought to purify Hinduism of idolatry, caste rigidity and superstition.
- Ramakrishna Mission (Swami Vivekananda, 1897) combined Vedantic revival with service.
- Darul Uloom Deoband (1866), the Singh Sabha movement (1873) and the Tablighi Jamaat (1926) renewed Islamic and Sikh practice among believers.
- Current revival includes large pilgrimages, the spread of satsang movements and Pentecostal growth. Most of it is devotional and not aimed at other communities.
Communalism in India
- Chandra traced three stages: communal nationalism (a community’s interests are distinct), liberal communalism (those interests diverge but can be reconciled) and extreme communalism (they are hostile and irreconcilable), which culminated in Partition.
- Asghar Ali Engineer argued that communalism is driven by competition among elites for power, jobs and patronage, not by religious teaching.
- Episodes of violence have affected every community: Partition (1947), the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, Ayodhya and Bombay (1992–93), Gujarat (2002), Muzaffarnagar (2013) and north-east Delhi (2020).
- Paul Brass described an “institutionalised riot system” of specialists who produce such violence. NCRB recorded 1,227 communal riot cases in 2014, 857 in 2020 and 378 in 2021.
Where the two meet
- Revivalism can slide into communalism when purification is defined against another faith. In the 1920s the Arya Samaj’s shuddhi (reconversion) campaigns and the rival tabligh and tanzim movements hardened boundaries and preceded riots.
- The Ram Janmabhoomi movement began as a religious claim and became a nationwide political mobilisation.
- Revival can also resist communalism. Mahatma Gandhi drew on religious idioms to preach unity. Ashutosh Varshney (Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life, 2002) found that cities with strong inter-community associations, such as Calicut, stayed peaceful where Aligarh did not.
Conclusion
Revivalism is a religious process and communalism a political one. The first is not inherently dangerous, while the second corrodes citizenship. The line between them is crossed when renewal of faith is converted into hostility towards others. Keeping that line intact depends on constitutional secularism, accountable policing and everyday inter-faith civic life.