BharatNotes Communal
adjectiveUsage in a UPSC answer
Sustained communal harmony cannot rest on coercion alone; it demands inclusive institutions, impartial policing and an education system that nurtures constitutional fraternity over sectarian identity.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
communal (adj), communally (adv), communalism (n), communalist (n), communalize (v), community (n)
Root
Latin communis = common, shared → Late Latin communalis → French communal; Indian sense developed in colonial era
Etymology
From French communal, from Late Latin communalis, from Latin communis ("common, shared"); in Indian usage, the term acquired its distinctive religious-identity connotation during the colonial period.
Memory Hook
"Communal" sits inside "community" — both grow from Latin communis, "common": what a community holds in common is communal. (Note the Indian-English twist: when communities clash on religious lines, the friction is also called "communal".)
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
In Indian usage, relating to religious community as a basis of political identity. The institutional history is what makes the word examinable rather than merely descriptive. Separate electorates for Muslims were introduced by the Indian Councils Act of 1909, establishing that a community would vote only for its own representatives. The Communal Award announced by Ramsay MacDonald on 16 August 1932 extended separate electorates further and allotted 71 reserved seats to the depressed classes, which Ambedkar welcomed as recognition that they required representatives of their own choosing, and which Gandhi resisted by a fast unto death at Yerawada on the ground that it would detach them from the Hindu fold. The resulting Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 substituted joint electorates with reserved seats and raised the number to 148 in the provincial legislatures, and that compromise is the direct ancestor of reserved constituencies under the Constitution.
Don’t Confuse It With
Communal in Indian English refers to religious community identity and usually carries a negative charge, quite unlike the ordinary English sense of shared or collective used in the sentence above. Communalism is the ideology treating religious community as the primary political identity. Separate electorates allow a community to vote only for candidates of its own, whereas reserved seats keep a single common electorate but set the seat aside, which is precisely the substitution the Poona Pact effected. Secularism in the Indian constitutional sense means equal treatment of all religions rather than strict separation of religion from the state.
Hindi Meaning
सांप्रदायिक (sāmpradāyik); सांप्रदायिकता for communalism and धर्मनिरपेक्षता for secularism.
Common Questions
- What was the Communal Award?
- Ramsay MacDonald's 1932 pronouncement extending separate electorates to several communities and allotting 71 reserved seats to the depressed classes, which Gandhi opposed by fasting.
- What is the difference between separate electorates and reserved seats?
- Under separate electorates only members of a community vote for its representatives, while under reserved seats the whole electorate votes but the seat is set aside for a candidate from that community.
Seen in UPSC Question Papers
- Prelims 2012 — Modern India
Real UPSC previous-year questions whose text uses “Communal” — proof this word earns its place on your list.
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