In context of the Indian subcontinent, communalism and sectarianism are two different phenomena which have different origin and different process of  development .The term communalism is especially used in the subcontinent indicating conflict between two religious communities: i.e. the Hindus and Muslims. The term came into use during the colonial period when the British treated the Muslim and Hindu communities  on the basis of their religion. The meaning of communalism, however, changed with the passage of time as a result of political development. Giyanender  Pandey in his book “The Construction of  Communalism in Colonial North India” writes that in Oxford Dictionary of 1933, the meaning of communal are”1.of or belonging to a commune.(b)Of or pertaining to  the Paris Commune and its adherents2. Of or pertaining to a (or the) community. 3.Of or pertaining to the communality or body of citizens of a burgh.The term of Communalism is defined as: Communalism: The principle of the communal organization of society; a theory of government which advocates the widest extension of local autonomy for each locally definable community. Hence  Communalist, a supporter of this system or an adherent of the Commune of Paris of 1871.

In the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary(1959) the one meaning of communal is: Of or pertaining to a (or the )community; especially, in India , of any of the racial sic )or religious communities.

G.    Pandey also points out that in 1920s and 1930s , it was not used negatively and the colonial administration used this term to indicate communal representation or communal feelings. However, with political development , the term changed its meaning and it started to express  uneasiness and growing bitterness between the Hindu and Muslim communities. For example, in 1924, the government published a Report on the  minorities which contains a chapter on the Communal conflict. In 1928,  in the Nehru Report, the term finally used to indicate the Hindu Muslim conflict, clash , and riots. Since then , communalism is used , in the context of the Indian subcontinent,  conflict between the Hindus and Muslims. It had its impact not only on politics but affected the social, cultural and historical thinking .Since then it is keeping busy the historians, political scientists, and sociologists to understand the origin , development, and impact of this phenomenon  on the Indian and Pakistani societies.

Thus, communalism is used to indicate a conflict between two religious communities  while sectarianism, on the other hand, is used to point out  a conflict within a religious community between two sects. Therefore, keeping in view the difference of these two different phenomena, first, we will discuss the origin and emergence of communalism and then sectarianism.

    Bipan Chandra in his book” Communalism in Modern India”(1984 ) defines it as: ”communalism is the belief that because a group of people follow a particular religion they have , as a result, common social, political and economic interests… that all followers of a religion share not only a community of religious interests but also common secular interests, that is, common economic, political, social and cultural interests.” In communalism , thus, different groups of community are united on the basis of religion and all difference on the basis of language, social status, and ethnicity are suppressed or subdued .The communal leadership. In the garb of this unity, attempts to acquire and grab as much as  political and economic benefits for them In order to get the support of the community, the leadership consciously shapes and formulates such images and symbols which emotionally appeal the community. Slowly and gradually they become basis for its unity and fully mobilize in case of needs.

 Majority of historians are in view that communalism in India is the product of the colonial period. Although there  had been some tension during the medieval period but it could not  be transformed into religious riots as the state adhered to secular policy and discouraged  religion to play a major political role in state policies. Kanwar Ashraf, a reputed historian of the medieval period, points out in one of his essays” Religion in the Medieval  Society” that only two communal riots took place during the later Mughul period. In one case, a religious fanatic, with the help of some of his followers , forcibly dismissed the Mughal governor in Kashmir and took the charge of the administration. He put some restrictions on the Hindus such as not to allow them to keep horses or wear a particular dress. But very soon, people were fed up of his religious fanaticism and , by revolting against him, restored the rule of the old governor. In another case, there was a conflict in Shah Bandar, Gujarat between the Bohra community and the Marwari seths. The reason was economic rivalry, but religion was used to undermine the economic domination of the Marwaris by the Bohras. However, realizing the gravity of the situation the Mughal governor intervened and sternly suppressed the riot. Besides these events, we don’t find any other incident of the Hindu Muslim clash before the colonial period.

 With the foundation of the colonial state, there occurred political, social, and economic changes which decomposed the old structure of the society and  started to transformed it according to its needs. It caused the disintegration of the old  and emergence of the new classes. The professional and artisan classes which were economically stable and had respectability in the society, after loosing their profession in view of modern technological changes,  lost not only the economic base but also their identity .All of a sudden they became unskilled labourers. These groups, in order to get some security and  identity, took refuge in religion and became zealots of their faith. It was the only option for them. Similarly, when the question of the government job arose, Hindus and Muslim both  demanded the government to allot the quota on the basis of their religious affiliation. Further, when colonial government introduced the system of election in the municipality and district boards, it created ,for the first time, a sense of minority and majority. This consciousness further increased when census indicated the number of each community. The  consciousness of number gave realization of each community of its strength and weakness. The Muslim community, for the first time realized that as a minority it had no security. To face the majority’s domination .That was the background that Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, to avert the fear of sense of insecurity of the Muslims, advised them to keep themselves isolated from politics and remain loyal to the British government for their protection The other option which was adopted by the Muslim community was to align themselves with Muslim Ummah  in order to covert their minority status and become a part of greater Muslim unity. That was the reason why the Muslim of the 19^th and 20^th centuries were searching their roots outside India and reconstructing their history and culture on the basis of religion. This tendency led them to express their loyalty to the Ottoman Caliph. This development also created a gulf between the Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims were accused of changing their loyalty and shifted it outside India.

Analyzing the origin and growth of communalism in India, historians agree that it was  nourished and developed by the middle classes to use it for their political and economic ends., such as to get government jobs, share political power.

Close study of communalism leads us to the process of its formulation. In its first phase, symbols were created by each community with the purpose emotionally to involve the members of the community. Such as in the  Hindu community, cow became a symbol of their religious sentiments and pepal tree assumed the status of sacredness. The Muslim community   became very sensitive if any procession passed in front of mosque  plying music. Some of their religious festivals which were forgotten and no more observed , were revived again and celebrated with such enthusiasm as to provoke the other community.

Communal riots also became necessary in order to strengthen the community internally. Some of the riots were engineered to create a gulf between two communities. In case of bloody riots, each community got it heroes and martyrs. Whenever, such riots were taken place they carried the similar pattern: rumours started to circulate that women were kidnapped and raped, houses were burnt and looted, or  some religious book or relic was desecrated. This flared the sentiments and rumours took actual forms when killing, kidnapping, and rapping became actuality. Thus, riots played very important part in hardening the feelings  and created extreme hatred between each other. Such was the affect of these riots that the cities were divided on communal lines. Social relations  and friendship came to an end. Economic boycott of other community became a weapon to render loss to the enemy community and its members. This ended the communal life of the communities and they ceased to share anything with each other. Moreover,  memories of these riots left such endurable impact  which could not be easily forgotten and  went down from generation to generation.  As a part of history it is a  reminder of bitterness and hatred which used by political leadership again and again for their ulterior motives.

 These riots on the one hand created a sense of insecurity among the people and , finding no option but to join their  community to protect their lives and property. Consequently each community started to organize armed gangs not only to defend and protect it but to threaten the opponents. The result was that throughout India there were training grounds where young people started to learn martial art. In  case of riots these armed groups fully participated  in them with their skill. To frighten the other community  they openly demonstrated their  art of  wrestling and fighting .This display of armed groups intensified the hatred and fear against each other. At this stage the rich and wealthy element of each community came forward to finance these activities. If not voluntarily, they were forced and coerced to donate, otherwise they were punished either looting or burning their property or kidnapping their kith and kin for ransom. Sometime common people were also asked to contribute which  subsequently involved them in the activities of these groups.

 Every community remained very much concerned to keep its unity intact. The consciousness of “number” and the sense of “Majority and Minority” accelerated the efforts not to loose the number. Therefore when the Christian missionaries started to convert the Indians, all religious communities became nervous and  to check the conversion, tried to  either convert or reconvert people to increase their number. In the Hindu community, such movement was Shudhi which reconverted  those who left the Hindu religion. The Muslim organized themselves  in such organizations as Tabligh and Tanzim  to check the reconversion and to preach  for more conversion. The result of these religious activities was that those people who were living in the villages indifferent to their religious identity,  became not only well aware of their religious identity but realized the difference between them and others.

 This difference was further intensified  by both the Hindu and Muslim community by using all sort of propaganda which emphasized separateness rather than mutual integration. History was also used to prove that both communities never lived together but remained involved in conflicts and wars. This new interpretation of history narrated the past in term of clash and conflict. It produced the heroes which were different and exclusively belonged  to the community whose religion they adhered. The whole medieval period in which the Muslim dynasties ruled over India was depicted dark and despotic by the Hindus, while the Muslim community glorified it  and inspired from the conquests against the Hindu rulers. Subsequently, warriors on both sides emerged as heroes. The Muslims resurrected the forgotten individuals from the pages of history as conquerors, such as Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazna, and Muhammad Ghori, while the Hindu took pride of those heroes who fought and defended their kingdoms against the Muslims. This transformed the whole history into a history of war and conquests. Its cultural and social aspects were ignored and neglected which show the development of composite culture and mutual integration of both communities. The pride in the past made both communities historically backward looking. They searched their ideal model in the past. To the Hindu community the Ram Raj became an ideal to be realized, while the Muslims were yearning for the old glories of the Abbasids and the Ottomons. They  became averse to modernity which in their opinion would weaken their religious purity and  identity. Therefore, all symbols and heroes of each community belonged to the past.

 Communalism also became an obstacle to the freedom movement. It clashed with nationalism. Nationalism, to fight against the colonial government strove to unite all people of India  irrespective of their religion, ethnicity, and linguistic affiliations. The colonial government fully used the communal feelings and encouraged  those elements who were its champions. It divided the Indian nation into two major groups and created such a wide gulf which could not be narrowed down even after the Partition .Communalism not only opposed nationalism, it also  undermined class struggle which consequently helped elite classes to maintain their domination in each community.

 In 1947.the Indian subcontinent passed through a period which is remembered in history because of  its cruelty, bloodshed, and uprooting of people from their centuries old ancestral homes. It not only divided the  country but divided the people .Partition did not solve the problem of communalism. It is still there with all of its manifestations. However, after the Partition, the case of India and Pakistan became different. In India, still there are Muslims who are a part of the population. There presence create communal riot if not on the old pattern .The new approach of the Indian communalism is to unite the Hindu nation into oneness what they call Hindutva and compel the minorities to accept their terms and surrender their independence.In case of Pakistan, the situation is different.The majority of the Hindu population migrated after the Partition. There is very small minority of the Hindu population in Sindh. They pose no threat to the majority. Therefore, the communalism which constructed after the partition is on the basis of hostility of the Indian state. In this case enemy is invisible and not present amidst the people. The communal feelings  emerge only whenever there is communal riots in India otherwise they remain dormant when nothing provocative happens on the other side. However, hostility with the Indian states requires to keep communal feelings alive. Therefore, Pakistani media dutifully do this job in propagating hatred against India and the Indian Hindus. Our history textbooks accomplish what remains unfinished by the media. It is also in the interest of the ruling classes to exploit these feelings to hide their failure and weaknesses. Thus, communalism in Pakkistan is politicized to preserve the status quo.

As a result of these feelings religious minorities are discriminated and deprived of their political and economic shares. They are not trusted to be appointed on sensitive jobs.

However, once communal feelings are inducted to the social milieu and hatred becomes a social value, it need some targets to victimize. So, the Pakistani society finds the Christians to be penalized because of their minority status and because of their weaker position and status in the society..Direction of hatred towards the Christians is difficult to understand because the Christian community is not powerful and rich. It doe not have strong middle class to challenge jobs market. They mostly belong to the lower classes. Even the missionary schools in Pakistan cater the children of the upper classes and ignore the education of their own community. Therefore, to make them target of their hatred is more psychological rather than social, political or economical.

The religious minorities in Pakistan are also discriminated on the ground that as they did not take any part in the Pakistan movement, therefore, they don’t have any right to assert for political rights. They should live on the terms of the majority. Ziaul Haq further isolated minorities when he introduced the separate electorate in spite of the protest of  minorities because it reduced their importance and confined them only to their communities. The blasphemy law provided a weapon in the hand of the majority to use it for their personal ends. It is evident from the numerous cases that the law is always used for personal enmity or grudge. This law, moreover, strengthens the religious parties  to become active in politics. They are using this law for their  economic benefit by  appeal general public to give them donation. They not only get donation from the people but get financial aid from rich Arab countries. This how religious parties become powerful  in Pakistani politics.

However, there is one positive impact of  communal hatred. The religious minorities have fully realized that they could become a part of  Pakistani nationhood only when there would be strong democratic and secular institutions . Therefore, there are strong political movements among these religious minorities for democracy and secularism. They are working with the progressive and liberal groups of the society to achieve this goal.

 The origin and growth of sectarianism is different than communalism. Its history shows that all religion in their early stage kept unity in their structure but with the passage of time when change occurred and social, cultural ,economic and political values and institutions reshaped and restructured . then society needed  to adjust itself with the new situation. A new interpretation provided the interested groups an outlet to adopt the change . The process of continuous interpretation created new sects. Thus a sect is a group of people who , to fulfill their social, political, and economic needs, rebelled against the established or original religion and mould it to their interest .In the past as well as in the present a sect was regarded as a rebel, renegade, and traitor, which after isolating from the main body ,weakened it and committed a crime. Therefore, sects were/are regarded hostile groups whose annihilation and destruction became main task of the adherent of the pure and original religion. The phenomenon of  emergence of sects is a continuous process. They appear and after fulfilling their task within a time and space disappear. In the Islamic history there are many sects whose existence could be find only in the history books.. As sects have limited followers and thus form a minority, they always threaten by the main body of religious community, so to protect them they evolve a system which could defend them from  the hostile elements.First of all, the sense of insecurity created unity among  the followers of a sects; they help each other in social and economic matters. Sometime their unity and prosperity  become a cause of hostility  which leads towards riot against them

 In  Christianity the emergence of the Protestant  sect created intense sectarian conflict. Although there were number of sects in  Christianity before  but the Protestant  greatly weakened the Catholic church. This conflict further intensified when the European states were also divided on the basis of sectarian affiliations. The result was that each states persecuted  the opponent sect such as in England the Catholics were not tolerated by the state and stringent laws were passed against them. Similarly, the Protestants were persecuted in France. How France was affected as a result of the sectarian clashes? L. Fisher in his book “ History of Europe” writes:

“But the wars of religion very nearly broke up the hard -won unity of France, inflicting evils wwhicch cannot be measured by battle losses alone. Town was divided against town, village against village, family against family. Armed affrays and assassination became incidents of ordinary life. Some murder were committed out of religious fanaticism, other in pursuit of private  vengeance, others, as in all times when the hideous taint of espionage infests the body politic, out of senseless terror.” The culmination of the sectarian conflict was the Bartholomew massacre of the French Protestants(24 August 1527) which shook whole France. The result of these sectarian clashes was that feeling themselves insecure in France, number of talented Protestants migrated from France to different European countries which deprived France from best of it artisan and professionals. Realizing the loss, the French government in 1598 passed the Edict of Nante which in the opinion of L. Fisher:  “is notable in the history of civilization as the first public recognition of the fact  that more than one religious community can be maintained in the same polity.”

The Edict of Nante had far reaching effects on the political, social, and economic life of France. It provided a new energy and vitality to the French society to respond the emerging challenges and to have more politically stable society.

 However, the sectarian wars continued in Europe. Germany remained a battle ground of these sectarian wars from 1618 to 1648 .Fisher again points out the results:” war waged with a ferocity to which history offers few parallels. It is indeed impossible to exaggerate the miseries which the helpless peasants of German empire were compelled to endure in these iron times. There was maurauding, there was starvation, there was even cannibalism. Whole villages  died out, and, as is always the case in time of extreme and desperate calamity, moral restraints broke down and ceded to wild bursts of profligacy.”

Europe learnt a lesson from the sectarian wars resulting in intolerance and hatred which blocked their  progress. To came out of this situation  practical efforts were made to secularized the European mind and ste. Subsequently, religion was separated from politics and equal rights were granted to every citizen irrespective of his religion or sect. This is how democratic and secular tradition took roots in Europe.

 Communalism and sectarianism not only divide a society but , after infusing extreme hatred against other, dehuminize their opponents in such a manner that to torture them, eliminate them , and kill them become no more inhuman and immoral but a religious duty and a matter of pride. Whenever, individuals of any society are nourished on such emotions and sentiments, they loose all qualities of human beings and transform themselves to ferocious beasts. It is evident that such a society becomes barren to produce  highly creative literature, music, or art  because all their creative energies are spent to wipe out their “imagined” enemies. .

Finding no expression of freedom and appreciation in such an atmosphere, intellectuals, artists and men of letter migrate from such countries and take refuge where they can express their artistic and creative talents. This process makes society intellectually barren and drags it  towards  more backwardness. Moreover, of and on occurrence of riots and clashes not only create sense of insecurity but greatly effect business .Further those who suffer as a result of riots and loose their only bread earners in killing, become worst suffers because what they loose, cannot be replaced. This makes them disillusioned from society in particular and humankind in general.

Involvement of law enforcement agencies in riots brutalize them. Once they handle common people with cruelty and  ruthlessness ,  human dignity and integrity reduce in their eye and every individual of society appears to them as criminal who should be treated with iron hand. The worst sufferers of these riots are women who are dishonured and raped to humiliate the other community( This barbarity we have seen and tolerated in case of Bosnia). Women of both Hindu and Muslim communities passed through this horrible experience during the Partition of 1947 when they were kidnapped, raped, their bodies were disfigured, and , after such humiliation, some of them were also killed.,

 There is a lot that we can learn from history. It requires strong will  to make society healthy and sane. .Those countries where  communalism or religious conflict and sectarianism  are eliminated, they did it by secularizing the mind of society. This ultimately led to the secularaization of state. To have complete communal harmony and sectarian tolerance there is need to make state and society both secular. Merely to secularize state is not enough as we see in case of India where the state is secula but society is  deeply fanatic  which results in communal hatred  and riots.. Secular states by separating religion from politic have achieved religious toleration in their societies.

To make mind of a society secular, education plays very effective role. But again the question is that which type of education makes mind free from all prejudices . Not the education that we are imparting to our generation but an educational system which gives broader outlook and perspective making the educated people tolerant and enlightend.Similarly, media can play a vital role to eradicate hatred against other communities and sects by analyzing events scientifically and exposing the vested interest of the individuals and groups who  are beneficiary of  riots and tension. Moreover, importantly it is the duty of intellectuals to tell to people that how communalism and sectarianism keeping them backward and effecting their social. political and economic well being. However, this need commitment and sincerity, therefore, the question is :Do we have it?