"Communalism Is Superior than Nationalism"

By Krishna Hari Pushkar

This paper looks into the issue of communalism and its perimeter of superiority with a short case assessment. The main motto of the paper is to begin an academic and political discussion about the conventional definition and traditional concept of nationalism and communalism.

It addresses a crosscutting question that how far communalism is superior to nationalism. This paper presents my experiences and observation about communalism that found in various cases. The communalism means a hereditist spontaneous loyalty and down-to-earth commitment towards the similar ethnic community or casts or racial groups where he or she belongs from, rather than as a whole.

The issues of communalism seem stronger. Peculiarly, when such people, groups, or communities are in state of minority or less mainstreamed or discriminated. It can also a group of disables, lesbians, gay or people of particular professions, religion areas or the any groups or community who share and express similar issues of interests.

The communalism is a spontaneous feeling or state of mind that act of binding people intellectually or emotionally to a particular course of action, specially to achieve some stakes. In simple word, the conception of communal feelings automatically forces people in some extent to act in a particularly designed manner. It can be knowingly and unknowingly too, because it comes from heredity, gin and conventional or contemporary practices.

Basically, it is associated with human nature and normally associated with inherent recognition or identity or can be also constructed in some exceptional cases by particular society or groups to fulfill contemporary need e.g. to achieve rights or recognition etc. However, communalism is a part of natural phenomena, which exists, in every human kind. However, its level, type or degree may different in person-to-person, society-to-society, region to region and situations to situation.

Likewise, the Nationalism is a broader umbrella term with limited horizons. It bets depends based on legal cornerstone and connects with citizenship for the respective person or community. It is chatoyant and may be easily influenced, if people legally migrate and accept new nationality, or can be due to revision of bilateral and multilateral boarder, so it is fluctuating.

In addition, it is also a doctrine that people think, the national culture and interests are superior to any other, but it does not seem applied in practices, specially to the country or the region where societies and communities are pluralistic. In addition, there are millions of people in the world, who just change their inherent nationality legally just to enjoy the better life style, employment opportunity and take financial and other needy vested advantages or to fulfill some specific missions and goals. Therefore, the real motion of the nationalism seems very fragile in contemporary world. Altho, the issue can be bring in further scholarly debate to get a line whether the communalism is superior to nationalism or vice versa.

A case from Nepal with relevance to Madhesi ethnic group; before to explain about the issue, it is essential to give a short account of Madhes. The Madhesis are indigenous inhabitants of plain area of existing Nepal. The Madhesis ethnic people comprise about 32% of total population and collectively the Madhes is the homeland of more than 50% population of Nepal.

The Madhes region is the southern plain land area of Nepal, which stretches from east to west, boarder entirely adjoined with the northern Indian Territory; also popular with the name of Madhes. The major issue of Madhes can be presented in two versions, one is general political version and another is insurgents' version. The political version of the Madhesis issues can be understand from the demands of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum (MPRF) who played leading role during the popular Madhes movement 2006-2007.

The key demands were Federal democratic republic, Proportional electoral system, Autonomy to Madhes region (one Madhes, one province), End of internal colonization, Regional autonomous governance system including right to self-determination, Rights on the land, natural resources and biological diversity of Madhes, To end racial and regional discrimination, Provide citizenship certificates to all Madhesis without discrimination etc. Secondly, the insurgents' version of Madhesi issue is considered from the demands of one of the hardcore Madhesi insurgents named as Jantantrik Mukti Morcha (JTMM: Jwala Sigh).

The JTMM demands are: Madhes should be declared an independent state; there should be proportionate participation by determining constituencies on the basis of population, all the police, army and administration in the Madhes should be evacuated and Madhesi people should be posted there; Population census should be conducted in Madhes in the coordination of Madhesi; all the revenue collected from Madhes should be spent for the development of Madhes; all the Madhesi killed by state and Maoists should be declared martyrs and rupees 1.5 million should be provided as compensation; citizenship should be issued from the central to district level in coordination of Madhesi; the land of Madhesi captured by Maoists should be given back and Maoists should stop their donation drive and tax collection in Madhes. Besides, there are more than two dozens of insurgents who are being active in Madhes.

Nevertheless, there are many similarities among the political groups as well insurgents groups in many ways, including their demands, working style and action strategy, and more. Thus, the both groups are continuously combating against the government for inclusion of Madhesis in all principal organs of state, human rights, proportional representation and autonomy, rights of self-determination, power sharing, development, and abolishment of all types of discrimination against Madhesis etc.

It is noticed there are two types of Madhesis people one who supports general political actions e.g. bandh, gherao, strike, blockade, demonstration etc and another to the insurgents who are involving in murder, kidnaps, shooting, blasting, counter war with national security forces, control over Non-Madhesis properties, attack over governmental offices and its officials etc. In short, there are two major groups, one who adopts civil political means and another means of guerrilla warfare approach as Maoist insurgency, perhaps they learned from the recently ended Maoist insurgency.

The Madhesis are politically marginalized, though some of them are affiliated with various ruling and political parties such as Nepali Congress, Nepal Communist Party (UML), Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Nepal Sadbhawana Party etc.

Few Madhesis are also in central positions and representing in cabinet, parliament as well as in higher-level parties' portfolios. In other wall, the Madhesis are also affiliated with various political parties and they practice its ideology as common political phenomena. However, it has been observed during the Madhes movement that all Madhesis were united and stand together with one communal voices by ignoring all national & political ideological practices. Majorities of them sacrificed its political positions or disobeyed the imposed instructions by their affiliated parties to express solidarity and stand strongly to achieve the motto and goal of Madhes and Madhesis interests. The Madhesi civil servants, Madhesis ethnic security personnel, and other professional people (e.g. engineer, doctors, lawyers etc.) were also even plunked in the same battlefront & elapsed the norms and guidelines of nationalism, professionalism and its concerned interests other than communalism.

The Madhesis ethnic people living abroad were also exceedingly participated in the movement through various means such as online companion, donations, media marketing, diplomatic pressure and also used optimum efforts to internationalization the issues. During the course, it has not been seen even any single voices against the sprits of movement by any of Madhesis fellows.

Some of the Madhesis politicians revolted inside the respective ruling political party too, while majorities of ruling political parties and its commanders and central leaders including the Prime Minister of Nepal Girija Prasad Koirala, Pusp Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal etc were in burly favor to suppress the Madhes movement.

They accused and frequently vouched that Madhes movement as conspiracy against the nationality and an attack over national sovereignty and integrity. Further, they impeached the Madhes movement as against the verdict of second national people's movement 2006. Some Non-Madhesis remarked, "The royalist, pro-monarchical & Hindu fundamentalist are behind the movement, and some even went far-away and said it is the movement of regressive forces and criminals". The anti-Madhesis politicians and its parties were officially in favor to suppress the movement by using the security forces with joint-action operations with Indian security mechanism.

Majorities' of Non-Madhesis also considered the Madhes movement against the national sovereignty and blamed as ominous movement for separation. However, there were even no any single Madhesis people were diverged or skewed from their movements' & its supporting mentality; Madhesis kept continued their actions and finally about to reach in the desired destination. Accordingly, a natural question can be emerged that why Madhesis people went beyond the national interest. Simply, the answer is communalism is in their priority rather than nationalism. Such hardcore communal extremisms were seen while even nation was passing through the most crucial moment such as peace process with Maoist, transitional crisis, issue of constitutional assembly election, monarchial abolishment issue and many more other important inclusion, restructuring, communal, gender, casts and regional issues etc.

Further, in practice, it has been observed in many case studies that people love and always try to attach with their own language groups, socio-cultural and religious group where he or she belongs from or shares similar communal interests and desires. For instant, four people e.g. a Nepalese ethnic people from Darjeeling, India, a Madhesi ethnic people from Darbhanga, India, a Madhesi ethnic people from Janakpur, Nepal and a Nepalí ethnic people from Kathmandu, Nepal, are living together in a same building in US or in any foreign country. In that case, it has been seen that people from Darbhanga and Janakpur and the people from Darjling and Kathmandu are closer and intimate than the people who have similar nationality; it is just because of the feeling of communalism.

It makes people naturally closer and convenient to shares common as well as individual interests, practices, problems, and other any relevant prospects. Therefore, principally it was believed that intimacy and closeness should be guided by nationalism in majorities' cases. It makes people integrated and adjoined in a single line as well as in matrix form too. However, it is found just opposite in practical cases, the tested dozens of cases through observatory approach in various communities such as people from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and American, which were not many differences than the situation of Madhes regarding the issue of communalism. In other words, they also put priority for communalism. Thus, the presented case shows that the binding of communalism seems stronger everywhere and in majorities' ethnic cases and community around the world.

In addition, in boarding area of Germany and France, some German ethnic people have French nationality and vice- versa due to alteration of boarder in various periods. In this case, it has been also observed that people are giving priority to their communalism rather than nationality. For instance, the Turkish ethnic people who practice German nationality have also similar situation in Germany. Specially an exclusive open elucidation of communalism has been observed during the European Football Championship program 25th June 2008, while the semifinal match conducted between Germany and Turkish. Almost all Turkish ethnic German people were seen so violent and radical while Turkish lost the football battle against Germany. None of even a single Turkish ethnic German citizen found happy while their nation won in the battle against Turkish. They wanted to see Turkey as winner just because of their mentality that is completely guided by communalism rather than the idealistic thoughts of nationalism.

In addition, in the case of Kashmir in Indo- Pakistan boarder, there are also similar situation, which may also a one of the major difficulties to resolve the Indo-Pakistan conflict, such situation exists in many part of Indian Territory. Hence, the degree of communalism is comparatively higher in developing world and lesser in developed world. However, the communalism exists everywhere. The nepotism, favoritisms, racisms, etc are also inseparable consequences of communalism and its practices. The communalism seems inversely proportional to the higher-level positive trend of development and directly proportional to the marginalization, discriminations and under development.

In Nepalese case, communalism has produced many regional and ethnic based political parties in Nepal. For instance, the result of recently held election of constitutional assembly proved the Nepalese people liked communal parties in general or the parties who radically seeded communal issues. Finally, the parties like Nepal Communist Party Maoist, Nepal Madhesi People Rights Forum, Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party etc achieved popular votes because they addressed the communal sentiment and finally became unexpected winners. In India, the Bhartiya Janta Party, Bhartya Janta Dal etc are also a kind of communal parties who have also a good position in Indian polity. The so-called national and historical parties in Nepal, specially Nepali Congress, and Nepal Communist Party (UML) etc. are being detested and marginalized from grassroots political holds because they failed to address the communal sentiments and its contemporary desires.

In rebellion dimension, there are two dozens of insurgent groups are active in Madhes region of Nepal and battling against state. The almost all insurgents are supported by Madhesi people and Madhesi politicians in practices. Majorities of Madhesi political fellows have good relation and coordination with almost all Madhesi insurgents but no any Madhesi politicians are formally against the Madhesi insurgency. Another side, the insurgents are expressing grateful and saying they are surviving just because of the valuable and direct contribution of Madhesi ethnic people. It means the Madhesis politicians are also somehow in supports of insurgency. The Indian people living in bordering area of Nepal are also openly helping them. The insurgents claim, "We have blood relations with Madhesis people, they are our relatives, they are our casts, and they are our brothers, family members, so we should support Madhesi in all possible courses of action that they need to achieve their rights. I think they have such feeling because of the influences of communalism. They do not care about the Indian Government's official policy and views towards Madhes unrest. They directly reject any kind of governmental actions and imposed directions, which are against Madhes issue. Therefore, they support the Madhes insurgency spontaneously and without any confusion. Therefore, the both Indian as well as Nepali Government should be careful in due time. It should be resolved by some specific strategy, otherwise, it can be burst and affect both nations simultaneously.

Therefore, the traditional philosophy of nationalism does not seem valid and significant as trusted as main platform of integrity and sovereignty. The definition of Nationalisms should be modified as per contemporary perspective of people's interests, trends and nature. I think the nationalism should be denoted with diversities of communalism rather than a hard-line definition, which seems based and valid on homogeneous society's structure. However, radicalism in communalism is very harmful to a nation therefore, government should play vital role to balance the pluralist society. If not, it can be turned as ethnic conflict.

To manage and minimize the negative influence of the radical communalism, government should introduce effective nation building polices, balance power sharing among all ethnic and social groups, proportional inclusion structure in all possible state organs, community based integrated development packages. Specially, the sort of all racial and ethnic discrimination should be abolished through proper strategy. The superiority or dominance of particular casts, or group or family, or culture, should be minimized.

The conception of social justice should be materialized through adopting the all-possible approaches for equity and equality by using various tools such as positive discrimination for marginalized group, scientific localized structure of federalism, community participation, induction of balance redistribution system, and democratization of nation through political, administrative, economical and diplomatic channels. The one of the most important thing is to use official efforts for conversion of legal nationality into mental status of respective individuals and community. It means legal citizen should feel ownership towards the nation where he or she holds legal nationality.

They should also feel more than homely otherwise; it can be like a huge population of Turkish ethnic German people who are legally German but never accepted themselves as German. In simple word, they always reject the German superiority over their communal aspiration.

Communalism is superior to nationalism. The higher degree or intensive influences of communalism are danger in order to achieve the sustainable peace and security. It can directly affect social harmony in pluralistic society. The communalism can be managed through proper handling.

Government can also take some advantages from the positive aspect of communalism during the course of community development program, institution building, infrastructure development, preservation of heritage, culture and social phenomena etc. The broader influence of communalism is defeating to the contentedness of nationalisms. Therefore, the superiority of nationalism is no more valid in contemporary social world. Hence, my final assumption is to point out "the communalism is superior to Nationalism"

(Author is associated with Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Nepal, and holding special expertise in the areas of peace, security and conflict management with relevance to developing countries)

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