The Time of Kali: Violence between Religious Groups in India

Social Research, Fall, 2000 by Sudhir Kakar

Communal Identities

Besides organizing memories of Hindu-Muslim relations according to the conflict version of history, the activation of the dormant conflict also had the consequence of bringing an individual's communal identity--"communal" in the Indian sense, with antagonism towards a rival religious group as its defining feature--to the fore. Whereas an individual's religious group identity manifested in congregational activities such as prayer or ritual, creates feelings of attunement and resonance with other believers, communal identity is charged with an ambience of aggression and persecution. Religious identity, constituted through an awareness of belonging to a community of believers is replaced by the communal identity's assertion of this affiliation; the "We-ness" of the religious group identity gives way to the "We are" of the communal identity. The self-assertion of "We are", with its potential for confrontation with the "We are" of the other religious group, is inherently a carrier of aggression, together with the consequent fears of retaliation and persecution and is thus always attended by a sense of risk and potential for violence.

The distinction between religious and communal group identities can also be seen in a noteworthy difference between Hindus and Muslims. A Hindu's self-identification occurs only when he talks of the Muslim; otherwise the conversation is in terms of castes. The Muslim's awareness of his religious group identity, as a member of a community of believers, does not need the presence of a Hindu (Kakar, 1996, 136), a finding which is also true in other parts of India (Ghosh, Kumar, Tripathi, 1992, 70-80). On the other hand, there is no difference between Hindus and Muslims in the pervasiveness and strength of their communal identities.

As Hindus and Muslims began to see each other as stereotypes, perceiving each other in terms of shared category characteristics rather than their personal, idiosyncratic natures, an inevitable homogenization and depersonalization followed. Conversations couched in terms of group categories, "Look at what the Hindus are doing!", "The Muslims have crossed all limits!", increased markedly. The rhetoric of violence became frequent, though it still remained a substitute for action.

The conscious experience and expression of identity through the religious group rather than through other group identities such as those of family, caste or profession, varies with individuals. At the one extreme there are always some Hindus and Muslims whose personal identity is not overwhelmed by their communal identity, even in the worst phases of a violent conflict. These are persons who wear their group identity lightly and are capable of acts of compassion and self-sacrifice, such as saving members of the "enemy" group from the fury of a rampaging mob even at considerable danger to their own physical safety. On the other extreme there are others--the fanatics--whose behavior, even in times of peace is dictated by their communal identity, an armor that is rarely taken off.