COMMUNALISM AND THE STATE: SOME ISSUES IN INDIA 39 War II, from 1939 to 1945, and yet this was precisely the period when communalism was growing very fast in India, both among Muslims and Hindus as well as among Sikhs. A very good example of this proposition is, Punjab. It was believed that the partition had solved the communal problem in Punjab, because before 1947, Hindu and Sikh communalists were on one side and they were anti-Muslim, and Muslim communalists were on the other side and they were anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh. So, it was assumed that with the partition and with the virtual disappearance of Muslims from Punjab, communalism would die out. When people talked about communalism in Punjab, they talked about the anti-Muslim sentiment, which was fed by migration from west Punjab to east Punjab and to Delhi, etc. But, in fact, Hindu and Sikh communalism were growing very fast from 1947 onwards. Perceptive observers, primarily the communists, were constantly warning against the spread of communalism in Punjab in the 1950s. Jawaharlal Nehru was very conscious of it, although he did not do much about it. Therefore what happened in the 1980s was precisely the consequence of what had been happening since 1947. The distinction between communal ideology and communal violence has to be dealt with differently for they have different relations to the State. I shall come to this point later, but here I must point out that communal violence requires immediate political and administrative steps. Perhaps, it requires peace marches and peace committees and steps like that. And I would agree that when communal violence is taking place ideological struggle has very little meaning. When the house is burning, you do not tell people why the fire and how to prevent the fire and all that; you extinguish it. But communal ideology requires long-term political and ideological struggle. As mentioned earlier, once communal ideology prevails for a long enough period, it becomes a material force and, therefore, it has to be consciously combated. No automatic results follow in this field because of their indirect steps. It was believed in the 1930s that the growth of the anti-imperialist struggle will get rid of communalism. It was believed that class struggles will get rid of communalism. After 1947, many people had the belief that with economic development or spread of education, etc., they would get rid of communal ideology. But the fact is that once communal ideology has emerged in a crystallised form, it is very necessary to wage a conscious anti-communal ideological struggle against it. It will not go on its own, whatever other steps might be taken. The State comes in, in one respect, because it can either promote communal ideology or ideological struggle against it, or it can take a weak stand vis-a-vis communal ideology. Once we are clear on this question of communalism as ideology then we can take a step forward towards defining a communal party. This might seem to be a very simple point, but I remember arguing with many of my friends a few years back at a seminar here, organised by