Communal harmony is a word very familiar to one and all in India.

It is always understood as harmony between people following different religions. But this word has wider meaning and application. People belonging to one religion may be Islam or Hinduism but can have difference in terms of caste or religious sub-sects. Hence when there is difference of religion,language,caste,colour etc this lack of homogeneity in people will create feeling of superiority of ones own identity in comparison to others. This takes many forms once this is associated with politics as it would mean advantage to some and disadvantage to others and this in turn creates feelings like jealousy and heartburn in the different sections of the society. Why this occurs in humans even after so many forward strides being taken in culture and civilization as well as in science and technology. The answer for this rests in the basic human instinct of group identity and territorial belonging dating back to pre evolution days.Many of the things like religion and spiritual teaching are an effort to further the evolution of homosapiens from these tendencies carried over from pre evolutionary days. But ingenuity of humans have come into play and it has started using these differences to create politics of narrow mindedness and parochialism. Once these difference are stopped being used as a tool of politics communal harmony would start prevailing automatically. In fact there is a long distance to traversed to attain a stage i evolution where these instincts becomes alien to human nature. Till communal harmony will never be complete in its practice in the human society. All religions in the world teach peace and peace alone. They say there is only one god. Practicing love and truth are the ways of reaching him. Christianity says, Love,

thy neighbor as you love thyself, Prophet Mohammad taught universal brotherhood. Hinduism taught Sarvejanah Sukhino Bhavantu. Let all people in the world live in happiness or bliss. Budhism also taught the gospel of love. Yet the world has gone through many wars fought on the basis of religion. The crusades, the partition of India and the massacre that followed, are a few examples where religion disturbed harmony and peace. The problem does not arise for nations or State where its entire people belong to one religion. The problem arises where people belonging to more than one religion live. Of late, we see that there are conflicts even among those who follow the same religion but belong to different sects. Man with his powers of reasoning and intelligence gives his own version of truth and God, and the difference leads to a sect. in Christianity there are Catholics and Protestants. In Islam there are Sunnis and Shias. In Bhddhists there are Hinayanas and Mahayanas. In Hinduism the divisions are many. All these religions preach that there is only one God. Yet in praying to the one God there are differences and conflict. Hinduism stands for unity in diversity. There are three specified systems of philosophy Advaita, Dvaita and Visisthadwaita. They all say there is one God, but the man god relationship differs in each. In Hindus there is a pantheon of gods to be prayed for God appears in different forms. Sit is all right for a philosopher. But for a common man it leads to conflict. Casteism in Hinduism is another malady. Whatever may be the root-cause for the establishment of caste it has now come to stay as a big hazard for the unity of Hindus. When harmony does not exist within one community where is a religion of tolerance.

It has accepted all faiths as one and had co--existed with them for centuries. It has even absorbed Buddha as one of the ten Avatars of Lord Vishnu. Apart from that India has produced great kings and saints who saw the oneness of all religions in the name of one God. Akbar, the greatest of the Moghul Kings, gave even a new religion in 1582 blending all faith, calling it Din-e-Ilahi. Saints like Kabirdas and Saibaba have sung in the name of one religion. The Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj movements have take up the cause of uniting all men and to establish communal harmony in society. In spite of all efforts, conflicts still arise and peace is disturbed. The main cause for disharmony is not religions. Disharmony is due to not understanding the truths therein properly. Gandhiji sang Eshwar Allah tereo nam. Still he could not prevent partition of India. Why? Man is always selfish and religion is like opium. When man is under its influence he does not know what he does. He feels that he is serving God by harming or hurting the other man. It is a mob frenzy that takes place. To prevent it, a lot of rational thinking on religion and proper understanding of truths in its necessary.

Amity between the communities in the country and absence of friction and tension among them is known as communal harmony. In countries like India, it is very important, being a Precondition to internal peace, which is essential for progress and development of the country.

As we know, India has got multiplicity of religions and very nature of the culture is composite. But religion has never been a source of co between the communities in Indian society. Mutual tolerance and regards for other religions is an age-old tradition of the country. Still the vested interests has always been active to create disharmony be them. There was, however, not a single instance some years back where obstruction in religious performance has been a cause of communal. This phenomenon in the Indian context is politically motivated an always been engineered by vested interests. It was there at the foreign rule as well as in post independence era. Communal harmony as such is highly sensitive an issue and cannot be soft pedaled any more in view of our traditional value, com cultural heritage and secular character of our state. For the sake of maintaining communal harmony, Akbar the started a new religion Din-e-Iiahi. He made a Rajput lady his wife gave equal respect is Hindu religion. During the time of Bahadur Zafar, the last king of Mugal dynasty, a function, Foolwalon-ki-Sai: used to be organized regularly in Delhi, were people of both the religion worshipped in temples and mosques together. Founders of our constitution also underlined the need of co harmony and provided for equal rights to all Indians irrespective of cast, colour and creed. This had made our democracy system stronger main problem is how to maintain communal harmony at administrative and social levels. There is lack of political consciousness armor, common people due to illiteracy. Secondly, antisocial and professional criminals have

been playing a key role in communal riots and flare-up as agents of vested interests and their hirelings. Finally, there is need of an effective mechanism to deal with it. Present mechanism is smooth. It lacks coordination and people's involvement. The intelligent agencies report in advance to the District and State authorities about the communal tension and the element actively-associated with growing tension and potential of disturbances etc. But generally no action is and authorities wait for the riots. It is only thereafter that police moves in and curfew is clamped to control the situation. During curfew arrests made for violations. For the last ten years Ram Janambhoomi - Babri Masjid issue is a major root of communal disharmony Muslims and Hindus are face to each other on this issue. In the early the communal riots on this issue has taken many lives in Gujarat. Three bogies of a train in which Ramsevaks were returning from Ayodhya were burnt by a mob of 2000 Muslim fundamentalists at Godhra railway station. In which 58 persons were burnt alive. Suddenly in reaction of it, Hindu started burning the properties and men and women in different areas of Gujarat. To being with, therefore, the first thing is to have a fresh look at it and amendment our approach accordingly. Foremost in the process thus is resolute toil on the part of government to protect the foundation pillar of the Indian state. With fresh approach to the problem fresh measures are also to be taken to deal with it effectively. The measure would include suitable amendment in the existing applicable law, pertaining to apprehension of breach of peach and criminal conspiracy against the state and people of India.

A new mechanism involving individuals and social organizations on different levels to watch and vigil over the situation replacing existing Local peace committees will have to be evolved to help the administrative machinery in taking preventive and follow-up action in cases of attempts and conspiracy of breach of communal harmony.

COMMUNAL DISHARMONY

Communalism arises among the society when a particular religious or sub-religious group tries to promote its own interests at the expense of others. In simple terms, it can be defined as to distinguish people on the basis of religion. Following are the factors responsible for the growth of Communalism in India: (I) Divide and Rule Policy of the British: The British rulers adopted the policy of 'Divide and Rule' to strengthen their roots while living in India. They divided the people of various communities of India and spread the feeling of distrust among them and hence they sowed the seeds of communalism in India. (ii) Political Organisations: Different communal organisations are found in India which have created hatred among the people of various religious communities by propagating, and hence they are the root cause of communalism.

(iii) Inertia indifferent Government: When the government does not take proper action at the proper time, communalism spreads among the subjects. Sometimes the government favours on the religion and leave others which create differences. (iv) Ineffective Handling of Communal Riots: Sometimes the state governments have been proved ineffective to curb the communal riots in their respective states. It also results in spreading the communalism. As the result of the above factors, communalism is raising its ugly face in India after the Independence and also creating great problems even in the working of Indian political system. Remedies: 1. The remedy of constitutional safeguards to root out the chronic malaise of communalism and casteism shall not have desired effect unless it is tackled by society itself. 2. Efforts should be made by the enlightened citizens to discourage the communal and caste based forces from the social, political and electoral process in order to make these forces irrelevant. They are to be opposed not to be appeased. 3. Communal carnage and caste wars should be dealt strictly with new strategies. 4. To usher an era of social equity and sarva dharma sambhava the people of India should not mix religion and caste with politics to attain the goal of common brotherhood for the unity and integrity of the nation.