Communalism definition
Communalism. ’ is Anglo-Indian and means attitudes and acts that give top priority to the interests of one’s community, which is subjectiv- ized by religion. Not only simple religious antagonism but interests based on non-spiritual relationships engender communalism. Religious groups started acting as social groups when the members became aware of prob- lems with religious difference in terms of social class and their job. The problem came to the fore in the 1890s and Hindus and Muslims tended to be in conflict until independence. The British government took ad- vantage of their differences to support its rule of British India, but was in difficulties by the Second World War (Karashima 2004: 413–418, 473– 474).