The Hindu Business Line : Growth and communalism

Can a high pace of economic growth and increasing communalism coexist side by side? The issue is important because of the growing incidence of communal activity in the country in recent times.

If the manifestation of increasing communal activity was always kept under wraps, in a manner of speaking, economic growth would probably not have been seriously affected. This is because economic growth is based on the unfettered operation of the fo rces of demand and supply, and any disturbance in the logistics of such activity is bound to affect both the sides of the economic picture leading to disruption which, in turn, would result in unsatisfactory target-attainment performance. Taken in its totality, what this would imply is that national economic growth would be affected.

‘Manageable’ impact

But, by its very nature, communal activity leads to disruption of the normal strands of social life which, therefore, must impede the operation of the impulses of economic growth, in the manner indicated above. If there can be any silver lining to this gruesome side of Indian social life, it is provided by the fact that such communal activity is usually localised, which means that the impact on economic activity too is geographically restricted. Admittedly, trouble in one part of the country generates echoes in another, distant part when the normal supply of economic items is interrupted. But these reverberations are usually weak and, what is more important, time-barred which leads to the total impact being “manageable”.

This, however, is only one side of the coin. The other side assumes menacing proportions when the forces of communalism develop wings, so to speak, which leads to greater logistics disturbances over a larger area, affecting economic activity more seriously. Indeed, observers may point to the recent spate of communal activity in Karnataka, Orissa, Assam and Maharashtra to provide an example of what such extended disruption really means. It is clear that when such large areas of the country are affected by the communal virus, it becomes a matter of concern for the economic managers in Delhi because the impact on the economy is that much greater.

The upshot of all this is the conclusion that economic growth and an increasing incidence of communalism cannot coexist. Is this what is in store for our country? This is an important question because, among other things, it involves examining the state of communalism in Indian society, more specifically whether Indians are becoming inherently more communal with the passage of time. If they are, the economic future of the Republic cannot be as bright as most people would want it to be. And that would be an unmitigated disaster for the nation as a whole.

Communal virus

In point of fact, however, one need not be all that despondent because any study conducted at the grassroots level of society will indicate firmly that the communal virus in India simply has no currency among the people of the country at large and, most importantly, that the virus cannot survive let alone multiply without the active help of a sort of politician who cannot see beyond his nose (which itself is in danger of being chopped off) in the quest for power. In other words, whatever it is that we are seeing of communalism today is the handiwork of a group of people who have no place in a liberal, democratic society such as ours and will have to be put down firmly whenever they raise their ugly heads.

The nation, however, has to be on its guard because communalism is a human sentiment based on hatred, which takes time to die down once activated.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY

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