Dhammayietra, an annual peace march in Lampatao, Cambodia at Thailand border against communal violence.

Communal violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated across ethnic or communal lines, where the violent parties feel solidarity for their respective groups and victims are chosen based upon group membership.[1] The term includes conflicts, riots and other forms of violence between communities of different religious faith or ethnic origins.[2]

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime includes any conflict and form of violence between communities of different religious groups, different sects or tribes of same religious group, clans, ethnic origins or national origin as communal violence.[3] However, this excludes conflict between two individuals or two families.

Communal violence is found in Africa,[4][5] the Americas,[6][7] Asia,[8][9] Europe[10] and Oceania.[11]

The term "communal violence" was coined by European colonial authorities as they wrestled to manage outbreaks of violence between religious, ethnic and disparate groups in their colonies, particularly Africa and South Asia, in early 20th century.[12][13][14]

Communal violence, in different parts of the world, is alternatively referred to as ethnic violence, non-State conflict, violent civil disorder, minorities unrest, mass racial violence, inter-communal violence and ethno-religious violence.[15]

History

Europe

A painting by François Dubois depicting the communal violence in France during the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Over two months in 1572, Catholics killed tens of thousands of Huguenots in France.[16][17]

Human history has experienced numerous episodes of communal violence.[18] For example, in medieval Europe, Protestants clashed with Catholics, Christians clashed with Muslims, and Christians perpetuated violence against Jews and Roma. In 1561, Huguenots in Toulouse took out in a procession through the streets to express their solidarity for Protestant ideas. A few days later, the Catholics hunted down some of the leaders of the procession, beat them and burned them at the stake.[19] In the French town of Pamiers, communal clashes were routine between Protestants and Catholics, such as during holy celebrations where the Catholics took out a procession with a statue of St. Anthony, sang and danced while they carried the statue around town. Local Protestants would year after year disrupt the festivities by throwing stones at the Catholics. In 1566, when the Catholic procession reached a Protestant neighborhood, the Protestants chanted "kill, kill, kill !!" and days of communal violence with numerous fatalities followed.[20] In 1572, thousands of Protestants were killed by Catholics during communal violence in each of the following cities – Paris, Aix, Bordeaux, Bourges, Lyon, Meaux, Orleans, Rouen, Toulouse, and Troyes.[16][17] In Switzerland, communal violence between the Reformation movement and Catholics marked the 16th century.[21] Ireland has a long history of communal violence with the period between July 1920 and July 1922 being particularly violent. This period of time saw the partition of Ireland and the establishment of Northern Ireland. The violence that occurred during this time in several towns/cities within Northern Ireland has been referred to as the Belfast Pogrom.

Africa

The Horn of Africa and the rest of Western Africa have a similar history of communal violence. Nigeria has seen centuries of communal violence between different ethnic groups particularly between Christian south and Islamic north.[22][23] In 1964, after receiving independence from British rule, there were widespread communal violence in the ethnically diverse state of Zanzibar. The violent groups were Arabs and Africans, that expanded along religious lines, and the communal violence ultimately led to the overthrow of the Sultan of Zanzibar.[24][25] Local radio announced the death of tens of thousands of "stooges", but later estimates for deaths from Zanzibar communal violence have varied from hundreds to 2,000-4,000 to as many as 20,000.[26][27] In late 1960s and early 1970s, there were widespread communal violence against Kenyans and Asians in Uganda with waves of theft, physical and sexual violence, followed by expulsions by Idi Amin.[28][29] Idi Amin mentioned his religion as justification for his actions and the violence.[30] Coptic Christians have suffered communal violence in Egypt for decades,[31] with frequency and magnitude increasing since 1920s.[32]

Asia

Arson and communal violence of 1946 between Muslims and Jains, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Communalism is a term historically used to denote attempts to construct religious or ethnic identity, incite strife between people identified as different communities, and to stimulate communal violence between those groups, particularly in Asia.[33] It derives from history, differences in beliefs, and tensions between the communities.[34] Communalism is a significant social issue in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.[34] Communal conflicts between religious communities in India, especially Hindus and Muslims have occurred since the period of British colonial rule, occasionally leading to serious inter-communal violence.[35]

The term communalism was coined by the British colonial government as it wrestled to manage Hindu-Muslim riots and other violence between religious, ethnic and disparate groups in its colonies, particularly in British West Africa and the Cape Colony, in early 20th century.[12][36][37]

The 4th Earl of Minto was called the father of communal electorates for legalising communalism by the Morley-Minto Act in 1909.[38] The All-India Muslim League and the Hindu Mahasabha represented such communal interests, and the Indian National Congress represented an overarching "nationalist" vision.[39] In the runup to independence in 1947, communalism and nationalism came to be competing ideologies and led to the division of British India into Pakistan and the Republic of India. British historians have attributed the cause of the partition to the communalism of Jinnah and the political ambitions of the Indian National Congress.[40]

East, South and Southeast Asia have recorded numerous instances of communal violence. For example, Singapore suffered a wave of communal violence in 20th century between Malays and Chinese.[41] In Indian subcontinent, numerous 18th through 20th century records of the British colonial administration mention communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, as well as Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, particularly during processions related to respective religious celebrations.[42][43]

The frequency of communal violence in South Asia increased after the first partition of Bengal in 1905, where segregation, unequal political and economic rights were imposed on Hindus and Muslims by Lord Curzon, based on religion. The colonial government was viewed by each side as favoring the other side, resulting in a wave of communal riots and 1911 reversal of Bengal partition and its re-unification.[44] In 1919, after General Dyer ordered his soldiers to fire on unarmed protestors inside a compound in Amritsar, killing 380 civilians, communal violence followed in India against British migrants.[45] There were hundreds of incidents of communal violence between 1905 and 1947, many related to religious, political sovereignty questions including partition of India along religious lines into East Pakistan, West Pakistan and India.[46] The 1946 to 1947 period saw some of the worst communal violence of 20th century, where waves of riots and violence killed between 100,000 and a million people, from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Jain religions, particularly in cities and towns near the modern borders of India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh. Examples of these communal violence include the so-called Direct Action Day, Noakhali riots and the Partition riots in Rawalpindi.[47][48]

It has recently been argued that in the post-colonial era, communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims contributed to the making of Muslim ghettos in those cities that had witnessed sustained communal mobilizations. It has furthermore been shown that the communalized real estate market, urban planning, and communal mobilizations often come to constitute each other in developing spatial majoritarianism.[49]

The 20th century witnessed inter-religious, intra-religious and ethnic communal violence in the Middle East, South Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.[12][50]

National laws

India

The Indian law defines communal violence as, "any act or series of acts, whether spontaneous or planned, resulting in injury or harm to the person and or property, knowingly directed against any person by virtue of his or her membership of any religious or linguistic minority, in any State in the Union of India, or Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within the meaning of clauses (24) and (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India" [51]

Indonesia

In Indonesia, communal violence is defined as that is driven by a sense of religious, ethnic or tribal solidarity. The equivalence of tribalism to ethnicity was referred locally as kesukuan.[12] Communal violence in Indonesia includes numerous localized conflicts between various social groups found on its islands.[52]

Kenya

In Kenya, communal violence is defined as that violence that occurs between different community who identify themselves based on religion, tribes, language, sect, race and others. Typically this sense of community identity comes from birth and is inherited.[53] Similar definition has been applied for 47 African countries, where during 1990–2010, about 7,200 instances of communal violence and inter-ethnic conflicts has been seen.[54]

Causes

Damage from communal violence between Christian Greeks and Muslim Turks in Cyprus.

Colm Campbell has proposed, after studying the empirical data and sequence of events during communal violence in South Africa, Palestinian Territories and Northern Ireland, that communal violence typically follows when there is degradation of rule of law, the state fails to or is widely seen as unable to provide order, security and equal justice, which then leads to mass mobilization, followed by radicalization of anger among one or more communities, and ultimately violent mobilization. Targeted mass violence by a few from one community against innocent members of other community, suppression of complaints, refusal to prosecute, killing peaceful demonstrators, imprisonment of people of a single community while refusal to arrest members of other community in conflict, perceived or actual prisoner abuse by the state are often the greatest mobilizers of communal violence.[55][56]

Research suggests that ethnic segregation may also cause communal violence. Empirically estimating the effect of segregation on the incidence of violence across 700 localities in Rift Valley Province of Kenya after the contested 2007–2008 general election, Kimuli Kahara finds that local ethnic segregation increases communal violence by decreasing interethnic trust rather than by making it easier to organize violence.[57] Even if a small minority of individuals prefer to live in ethnically homogenous settings due to fear of other ethnic groups or otherwise, it can result in high degrees of ethnic segregation.[58] Kahara argues that such ethnic segregation decreases the possibility of positive contact across ethnic lines.[59] Integration and the resultant positive interethnic contact reduces prejudice by allowing individuals to correct false beliefs about members of other ethnic groups, improving intergroup relations consequently.[60] Thus, segregation is correlated with low levels of interethnic trust. This widespread mistrust along ethnic lines explains the severity of communal violence by implying that when underlying mistrust is high, it is easier for extremists and elites to mobilize support for violence, and that where violence against members of other ethnic groups is supported by the public, perpetrators of such violence are less likely to face social sanctions.[61]

Alternate names

In China, the communal violence in Xinjiang province is called ethnic violence.[62] Communal violence and riots have also been called non-State conflict,[63] violent civil or minorities unrest,[64] mass racial violence,[65] social or inter-communal violence[66] and ethno-religious violence.[67]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Horowitz, D.L. (2000) The Deadly Ethnic Riot. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA
  2. ↑ Communal Oxford Dictionaries
  3. ↑ Homicide, Violence and Conflict UNODC, United Nations
  4. ↑ Kynoch, G. (2013). Reassessing transition violence: Voices from South Africa's township wars, 1990–4. African Affairs, 112(447), 283–303
  5. ↑ John F. McCauley, Economic Development Strategies and Communal Violence in Africa, Comparative Political Studies February 2013 vol. 46 no. 2 182–211
  6. ↑ Willis, G. D. (2014), Antagonistic authorities and the civil police in Sao Paulo Brazil, Latin American Research Review, 49(1), 3–22
  7. ↑ Resource guide for municipalities UNODC
  8. ↑ Mancini, L. (2005) Horizontal Inequality and Communal Violence: Evidence from Indonesian Districts (CRISE Working Paper No. 22, Oxford, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford)
  9. ↑ Werbner, P. (2010), Religious identity, The Sage handbook of identities, ISBN 978-1412934114, Chapter 12
  10. ↑ Todorova, T. (2013), ‘Giving Memory a Future’: Confronting the Legacy of Mass Rape in Post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, Journal of International Women's Studies, 12(2), 3–15
  11. ↑ Bell, P., & Congram, M. (2013), Communication Interception Technology (CIT) and Its Use in the Fight against Transnational Organised Crime (TOC) in Australia: A Review of the Literature, International Journal of Social Science Research, 2(1), 46–66
  12. 1 2 3 4 Klinken, Gerry van (2007). Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia - Small Town Wars (PDF). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-41713-6.
  13. ↑ Arafaat A. Valiani, Militant Publics in India: Physical Culture and Violence in the Making of a Modern Polity, ISBN 978-0230112575, Palgrave Macmillan, pp 29–32
  14. ↑ David Killingray, Colonial Warfare in West Africa, in Imperialism and War: Essays on Colonial Wars in Asia and Africa (Edited by Jaap A. de Moor, H. L. Wesseling), ISBN 978-9004088344, Brill Academic
  15. ↑ Donald Horowitz (1985), Ethnic Groups in Conflict, ISBN 978-0520053854
  16. 1 2 Parker, G. (ed.) (1994), Atlas of World History, Fourth Edition, BCA (HarperCollins), London;
  17. 1 2 Partner, P. (1999), Two Thousand Years: The Second Millennium, Granda Media (Andre Deutsch), Britain, ISBN 0-233-99666-4;
    • Upshall, M. (ed.) (1990), The Hutchinson Paperback Encyclopedia, Arrow Books, London, ISBN 0-09-978200-6
  18. ↑ David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 1998
  19. ↑ Pierre-Jean Souriac, "Du corps à corps au combat fictif. Quand les catholiques toulousains affrontaient leurs homologues protestants," in Les affrontements: Usages, discours et rituels, Editor: Frédérique Pitou and Jacqueline Sainclivier, Presses Universitaires de Rennes (2008)
  20. ↑ Julius Ruff, Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500–1800, Cambridge University Press, 2001
  21. ↑ Bruce Gordon (2002), The Swiss Reformation, Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0719051180, pp. 90–99
  22. ↑ Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations?, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 22–49
  23. ↑ Desplat & Ostebo (2013), Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism, ISBN 978-1137325297
  24. ↑ Conley, Robert (14 January 1964), "Regime Banishes Sultan", New York Times, p. 4, retrieved 16 November 2008.
  25. ↑ Parsons, Timothy (2003), The 1964 Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-325-07068-1
  26. ↑ Conley, Robert (19 January 1964), "Nationalism Is Viewed as Camouflage for Reds", New York Times, p. 1, retrieved 16 November 2008
  27. ↑ Los Angeles Times (20 January 1964), "Slaughter in Zanzibar of Asians, Arabs Told", Los Angeles Times, p. 4, archived from the original on 17 October 2012, retrieved 16 April 2009
  28. ↑ Kasozi, Abdu Basajabaka Kawalya; Musisi, Nakanyike; Sejjengo, James Mukooza (1994). The Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 1964–1985, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0-7735-1218-7
  29. ↑ Phares Mukasa Mutibwa (1992), Uganda since independence: a story of unfulfilled hopes, C. Hurst & Co. United Kingdom, ISBN 1-85065-066-7
  30. ↑ Arnold M. Ludwig, King of the Mountain: The Nature of Political Leadership, University of Kentucky Press, ISBN 978-0813122335, pp 182–187
  31. ↑ Heba Saleh, Christians targeted in communal violence in Egypt The Financial Times (August 16, 2013)
  32. ↑ B. L. Carter, The Copts in Egyptian Politics, ISBN 978-0415811248, Routledge, pp 272–279
  33. ↑ Horowitz, Donald (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520053854.
  34. 1 2 Pandey, Gyanendra (2006). The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India. Oxford India.
  35. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Raj, Suhasini; Yasir, Sameer (2020-02-25). "New Delhi Streets Turn Into Battleground, Hindus vs. Muslims". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  36. ↑ Valiani, Arafaat A. (11 November 2011). Militant Publics in India: Physical Culture and Violence in the Making of a Modern Polity. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 29–32. ISBN 978-0230112575.
  37. ↑ Killingray, David (1989). "Colonial Warfare in West Africa". In Moor, Jaap A. de; Wesseling, H. L. (eds.). Imperialism and War: Essays on Colonial Wars in Asia and Africa. Brill Academic. ISBN 978-9004088344.
  38. ↑ Laxmikanth, M. (2017). Indian Polity (Fourth ed.). Chennai, India: McGraw Hill Education. p. 1.6. ISBN 978-93-5260-363-3.
  39. ↑ Akbar, M. J. (1989). Nehru, The Making of India. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140100839.
  40. ↑ "BBC - History - British History in depth: The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies". BBC. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  41. ↑ Leifer, Michael (1964), Communal violence in Singapore, Asian Survey, Vol. 4, No. 10 (Oct., 1964), 1115–1121
  42. ↑ Bayly, C. A. (1985), The Pre-history of Communalism? Religious Conflict in India 1700–1860, Modern Asian Studies, 19 (02), pp. 177–203
  43. ↑ Baber, Z. (2004), Race, Religion and Riots: The ‘Racialization’ of Communal Identity and Conflict in India, Sociology, 38(4), pp. 701–718
  44. ↑ Richard P. Cronin (1977), British Policy and Administration in Bengal, 1905–1912: Partition and the New Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, ISBN 978-0836400007
  45. ↑ DRAPER, A. (1981), Amritsar – The Massacre that Ended the Raj, Littlehampton, ISBN 978-0304304813
  46. ↑ PANDEY, G. (1983),␣in Editor: GUHA, R., 1983, Subaltern Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society, Delhi, Oxford University Press, pp. 60–129, ISBN 978-0195633658
  47. ↑ BRISTOW, R.C.B. (1974), Memories of the British Raj: A Soldier in India, Johnson, ISBN 978-0853071327
  48. ↑ PANDEY G. (1990), The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198077305
  49. ↑ Bandyopadhyay, Ritajyoti, Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022:https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009109208
  50. ↑ Tambiah, S. J. (1990), Presidential address: reflections on communal violence in South Asia, The Journal of Asian Studies, 49(04), pp 741–760;
    • Vaughn, B. (2005, February), Islam in South and Southeast Asia. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON DC, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE (2005);
    • Baker & Hamilton (2006), The Iraq study group report, Random House, ISBN 978-0307386564;
    • Azra A. (2006), Indonesia, Islam, and democracy: Dynamics in a global context, Equinox Publishing, ISBN 978-9799988812, pp. 72–85
  51. ↑ PREVENTION OF COMMUNAL AND TARGETED VIOLENCE (ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND REPARATIONS) BILL, 2011 Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine Government of India
  52. ↑ Social violence in Indonesia is localized Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Jakarta Post
  53. ↑ COUNTRY REPORT: KENYA – 2013 ACLED, Africa (2014)
  54. ↑ Idean Salehyan et al, Social Conflict in Africa: A New Database, International Interactions: Empirical and Theoretical Research in International Relations, Volume 38, Issue 4, 2012
  55. ↑ Colm Campbell (2011), 'Beyond Radicalization: Towards an Integrated Anti-Violence Rule of Law Strategy', Transitional Justice Institute Research Paper No. 11-05, in Salinas de Friás, KLH Samuel and ND White (eds), Counter-Terrorism: International Law and Practice (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011)
  56. ↑ Frances Stewart, Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multiethnic Societies, ISBN 978-0230245501, Palgrave Macmillan
  57. ↑ Kasara, Kimuli (June 2016). "Does Local Ethnic Segregation Lead to Violence?: Evidence from Kenya". Working Paper.
  58. ↑ Schelling, Thomas (1971). "Dynamic Models of Segregation". Journal of Mathematical Sociology. 1 (2): 143–186. doi:10.1080/0022250x.1971.9989794.
  59. ↑ Kasara, Kimuli (2016). "Does Local Ethnic Segregation Lead to Violence? Evidence from Kenya". Working Paper.
  60. ↑ Pettigrew, Thomas (1998). "Intergroup Contact Theory". Annual Review of Psychology. 49: 65–85. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.65. PMID 15012467. S2CID 10722841.
  61. ↑ Kasara, Kimuli (June 2016). "Does Local Ethnic Segregation Lead to Violence?: Evidence from Kenya". Working Paper.
  62. ↑ A. R. M. Imtiyaz, Uyghurs: Chinesization, Violence and the Future, Temple University, IUP Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 18–38, Winter 2012
  63. ↑ UCDP Non-State Conflict Dataset Archived 2015-01-22 at the Wayback Machine Sweden (May 2014)
  64. ↑ French Civil Unrest Subsides The New York Times (2005)
  65. ↑ Allen D. Grimshaw, A Social History of Racial Violence, ISBN 978-0-202-362632
  66. ↑ THE INTER-COMMUNAL TRUST BUILDING PROJECT Harvard University
  67. ↑ Chris Wilson, Ethno-Religious Violence in Indonesia: From Soil to God, ISBN 978-0-415-453806

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Chandra, Bipan (1984). Communalism in Modern India. New Delhi: Vikas. ISBN 0706926552.
  • Bidwai, Praful; Mukhia, Harbans; Achin Vanaik, eds. (1996). Religion, Religiosity and Communalism. New Delhi: Manohar. ISBN 8173041326.
    • Jhingran, Saral. "Religion and communalism"
  • Asgharali Engineer. Lifting the veil: communal violence and communal harmony in contemporary India. Sangam Books, 1995. ISBN 81-7370-040-0.
  • Ludden, David, editor. Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1996.
  • Manuel, Peter. "Music, the Media, and Communal Relations in North India, Past and Present," pp. 119–39.
  • Martin E. Marty, R. S. Appleby (eds.), Fundamentalisms Observed The Fundamentalism Project vol. 4, eds., University of Chicago Press (1994), ISBN 978-0-226-50878-8
  • Mumtaz Ahmad, an 'Islamic Fundamentalism in South Asia: The Jamaat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat', pp. 457–530.
    • Gold, Daniel, 'Organized Hinduisms: From Vedic Truths to Hindu Nation', pp. 531–593.
  • T. N. Madan, 'The Double-Edged Sword: Fundamentalism and the Sikh Religious Tradition', pp. 594–627.
  • A History of the Hindu-Muslim Problem in India from the Earliest Contacts Up to its Present Phase With Suggestions for Its Solution. Allahabad, 1933. Congress report on the 1931 Cawnpur Riots.
  • Nandini Gooptu, The Urban Poor and Militant Hinduism in Early Twentieth-Century Uttar Pradesh, Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press (1997).
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