A Useful Debate
RAJU RAMACHANDRAN
COMMUNAL PROBLEM IN INDIA: A SYMPOSIUM by Ramjilal Dyal Singh College, Karnal, 1989, 238 pp., price not stated
March-April 1989, volume 13, No 2

In November 1987 academics gathered at the Dyal Singh College, Karnal to discuss the various aspects and facets of the communal problem in India. The volume under review is a collection of the papers presented at the seminar.

Discussions on the communal problem have a triteness about them. But the pro¬blem will continue to be debated as long as it exists and the changing and evolving forms of communalism require constant analysis. From this point the contri¬butions at the seminar have served a use¬ful purpose.

It is interesting to note that as a pejora¬tive the term ‘communal’ is uniquely Indian. Surinder Suri rightly points out that in every other English speak¬ing country, the word ‘communal’ is used in a positive sense, as something which is of service to the community and to others. Applying the theory of the ‘deep structure’ of language and its meanings as outlined by Noam Chomsky, Suri speculates that at some point in the last century, some Englishman must have pointed out that Indians form a highly communal society, and the Indian scholar or politician who heard the remark must have understood it as a deprecatory observation.

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