Instances that Involve Relationship Between Religion & Politics.

• Gandhiji believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religion
• Human rights groups demanding the Government to take special steps to protect religious minorities
• Women’s movements want Government to change family laws to make it equitable

HOW CAN RELIGION INFLUENCE POLITICS

• Mahatma Gandhi Believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from all religions
• Ideas, ideals and values drawn from different religions should play important role in politics.
• People should be able to express in politics their needs and demands as a member of a religious community.
• Those who hold political power should be able to prevent discrimination on the basis of religion.

MEANING OF COMMUNALISM

• Communalism is a situation when a particular community tries to promote its own interest at the cost of other communities.

WHEN DOES COMMUNALISM PROBLEM BECOME ACUTE?

• Religion is seen as the basis of the nation.
• When one religion and its followers are discriminated by others.
• When people start believing that belief of their religion is superior than other religions.
• When the state power is used to established the domination of one religion over the others.

MAJOR BELIEFS OF COMMUNAL PEOPLE

• The followers of a particular religion must belong to one community.
• Their fundamental interest should be same.
• people who follow different religions can not belong to the same social community
• If the followers of different religions have commonalities these are superficial

IDEAS OF COMMUNAL POLITICS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED

• Most of these beliefs are not true.
• People of one religion don’t have the same interests and aspirations in every context.
• Everyone has several other roles, positions and identities.
• There are many voices inside every community.
• All these voices have the right to be heard.