National Integration is a process by which divisive people and culture are synthesized into a unified whole, along with higher levels of cooperation, mutual understanding, shared values, common identity and above all national consciousness. In the process of national integration, people of a nation develop the sense of we feeling and are unified. The broader objective of national integration has been the attainment of ideological goals such as secularism and democracy. But these are some negative forces lurking within the society which pose as a rising threat to the national integration of India in the form of communalism, regionalism, linguism, etc.
India represents a divirse religions and cultures. Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, etc have flourished here. Whereas the Hindus constitute the major segment of India’s population, the Muslims constitute the largest minority. But the irony is that the adjustment between the Hindus and Muslims has been a failure several times, resulting in violent outbursts and communal riots. The inhuman behavior seen in the communal riots during the period of Independence of India, has no parallel instances in the entire history of the world. In fact, communalism is not a new phenomenon and has tended to exist since the times of the Muslim rule in the medieval period.
Communalism is described as a tool to mobilize people for or against, by raising an appeal on communal lines. Asghar Ali Engineer, Moin Shakir and Abdul Ahmed try to explain communalism as an ideological tool for propagation of economic and political interests. According, to them it I an instrument in the hands of the hands upper class to concentrate power by dividing people.
Communalism as an ideology may be perceived as:
- A total commitment to a set of beliefs,
- Far from rationality,
- Commiting of self to the community alone,
- Unwillingness to accept other belief patterns and faiths,
- Closing of self and being highly emotional to it, to the extent of crossing the bounds of law at times.
- It mostly rests on prejudices,
- It causes rivalry and violence among masses,
- It effects are disastrous,
- It strikes at the roots of secularism and national integration.
There are many factors that lead to the emergence of communalism in the society. Some of these factors include provocation of enemy countries, negative effect of mass media, geographical causes, weak economic status of minorities, historical causes, organized and militant fundamentalist organization, orthodoxy and obscurantism and failure of government policies.
There stands an urgent need of eradication of communalism in our society. Some policies that can be undertaken in this regard include abolition of communal parties in our country, healthy public opinion, inter- religious marriages, declaration of national festivals, etc. These are few measures that may help in curbing communalism from causing any threat to the National integration of our country.
Eduindex News 
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