The University system is normally considered in terms of statusquoism. When the society undergoes big changes and there is turbulence around, the University can ill afford to remain static. This has been universally experienced, as in the case of France in the 60s, the USA at the time of the Vietnam War and India during the national freedom struggle. It is common knowledge that the Indian nation has been passing through critical days. Politics of region and religion has been rocking national life and there are alarming signals of instability in the polity. In recent times, what has been troubling us most is the sudden rise of communalism and the consequent communalisation of politics, especially since the 80s of this Century. India accepted secularism as a political ideal as a matter of political necessity in a multireligious society. New India was born out of the bitter experience of a communal holocaust. Espousing the best spirit of humanism and scientific spirit, the founding fathers of new India expected to build a modern society under a secular State apparatus. The policy was crafted in terms of Aristotelian "distributive justice" — involving sharing of power, duties and responsibilities by the communities. Colonialism left behind an economically undeveloped country and the trauma of an artificially created communal divide. It was our hope that new India would recreate a new social life characterised by justice, equality and socialist values. Unfortunately, what we have been witnessing in recent times is the steady erosion of the constitutional ideal and blatant propagation of the politics of communalism. As one of our eminent political scientists, Professor Randhir Singh, summed it up : "...the heightening of communalism today is simultaneously the product of social, moral and political crisis in society and the reaction of the ruling classes to this crisis. With the older bases of their power and hegemony weakening, they are increasingly turning to communalism in general and to Hindu communalism in particular, to win votes, fragment and divide the people and, above all, secure their continued political and ideological dominance over them."

Against this background, this volume has been planned as a modest attempt, on the part of this University, to explain the communal phenomenon and dispel intellectual confusion about the nature, rise and spread of communalism in contemporary India. It is the social responsibility of the University not only to create new thoughts but also to purify existing ones. We are immensely grateful to the learned contributors who, by contributing their pieces, had helped us discharge our social responsibility. We will only hope that the papers presented in this volume will attract the attention of the widest possible audience in order that we, as a nation, would be better equipped to come to grips with a fast-spreading pathological social situation. We would surely welcome comments and suggestions. that might be helpful in further enriching. the volume in the next edition. Our grateful thanks are due to Shri Paritosh Sen, the last of the Mohicans among the artists and art-intellectuals in India, who has been kind enough to do the cover design for this volume as a labour of love to this University and to the cause which the volume seeks to espouse..

Book's Contents and Sample Pages