Communal Syndrome

In her well-written book, The Com­munal Edge to Plural Societies, Ratna Naidu explores the social morphology of the communal question in India and Malaysia. She probes into the normative structure of communalism, the contextual differences between communalism and nationalism, and, most significantly, on the vastly different assumptions in the approaches of the political elites in the two countries.

The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter presents the framework of the study. The communal conflict in India and Malaysia is investigated in the framework of political economy and the frictions among communities derived from the positions occupied by groups in the process of growth and development. The second chapter amplifies the economic compulsions behind communalism and the third analyses the role of political processes in happening communal animo­sities. The fourth chapter lays bare the anatomy of a few selected riots in both countries. The final chapter discusses various policy choices open to the ad­ministration in dealing with communal antagonism in plural societies.