Social and Economic Compulsions behind Communalism-A Case Study

Communalism A Case Study Ratna Dutta Based on fieldwork in a small town in the Deccan, this paper examines the social and economic compulsions behind communalism. It is part of a larger comparative study of communalism and economic and political development in Asia. The broad hypothesis of the comparative study is that economic compulsions generate communal conflict in Asia, and that the religious, cultural and/or ideological idiom, in which the conflicts are sustained, is a mere expression of the more basic economic cleavages.