Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two
languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of
each language used in accordance with the program model. Bilingual
education refers to the utilization of two languages as means of
instruction for students and considered part of or the entire school
curriculum, as distinct from simply teaching a second language as a subject.
Importance of bilingual education
Children's Bilingual Theater Dr Seuss Day
The bilingual French-speaking school Trung Vuong
Bilingual education is viewed by educators as the "pathway to bilingualism",
which allows learners to develop proficiency and literacy in both their
mother-tongue and second-language. The competency in two languages is
believed to broaden students' opportunities to communicate with people
from other communities or revive another language. Another advantage of bilingual education is “promoting equal education” and becoming “the cure and not the cause of underachievement”,
as it gives students an opportunity to showcase their knowledge and
skills in their first language. When students' first language is valued
and used as a resource for learning, it has a positive effect on
learners’ self-esteem and “identity affirmation”.
Not only does bilingual education introduce new linguistics and
maintain home languages, but it also promotes cultural and linguistic
diversity. This allows for positive intercultural communication, which
can lead to a better understanding of cultural and linguistic
differences. As Baker and Wright (2017) point out, children in dual
language bilingual schools “are likely to be more tolerant, respectful,
sensitive and equalized in status. Genuine cross-cultural friendships
may develop, and issues of stereotyping and discrimination may be
diminished”.
The official language policy of International Baccalaureate
Organization (2014) also emphasizes the importance of “cultivation of
intercultural awareness, international-mindedness, and global
citizenship”
in international schools where students speak more than two languages.
Other benefits of bilingual education are considered to be improved
cognitive performance, "particularly in the performance of complex tasks that are controlled by executive functioning processes and working memory" and such economic advantages as increased job and education opportunities around the world. Bilingual education can also revive native languages in colonised countries.
Bilingual education program models
The following section surveys several different types of bilingual education program models.
Immersion bilingual education
Immersion
is a type of bilingual education in which subjects are taught in a
student's second language. The students are immersed into a classroom in
which the subject is taught entirely in their second language
(non-native language). There are different facets of immersion in
schools.
Total immersion
Total immersion
is a type of bilingual education in which the whole class is only
taught in the second language, without any use of the native language.
The second type of bilingual education is known as Partial immersion, when the native language is used in the class, and about half of the class time is spent learning the second language.
Two-way or dual language immersion
The third type of immersion within schools is called two-way immersion, also known as dual immersion.
Dual immersion occurs when half of the students in class natively speak
the second language while the other half do not. Dual immersion
encourages each group of students to work together in learning each
other’s language.
Dual language or two-way immersion education refers to programs
that provide grade-level content and literacy instruction to all
students through two languages, English and a partner language. These
programs are designed to help native and non-native English speakers
become bilingual and biliterate. There are four main types of dual
language programs, these programs refer to how a student would best
learn with dual language immersion based on their previous language
skills.
The first type are developmental, or maintenance
bilingual programs. These programs enroll students who are native
speakers of the partner language to learn English. The second type are bilingual immersion programs. These programs enroll both native English speakers and native speakers of the partner language. The third type are foreign language
immersion programs. These programs primarily enroll students who speak
English as their native language. Finally, the fourth type are heritage language
programs. These programs enroll students who are primarily dominant in
English, but a close relative (e.g. parent or grandparent) speaks the
partner language.
Another form of bilingual education is a type of dual language
program that has students study in two different ways: 1) A variety of
academic subjects are taught in the students' second language, with
specially trained bilingual teachers who can understand students when
they ask questions in their native language, but always answer in the
second language; and 2) Native language literacy classes improve
students' writing and higher-order language skills in their first
language. Research has shown that many of the skills learned in the
native language can be transferred easily to the second language later.
In this type of program, the native language classes do not teach
academic subjects. The second-language classes are content-based, rather
than grammar-based, so students learn all of their academic subjects in
the second language. Dual language is a type of bilingual education
where students learn about reading and writing in two languages. In the
United States, the majority of programs are English and Spanish but new
partner languages have emerged lately such as Japanese, Korean, French,
Mandarin, and Arabic. The concept of dual language promotes
bilingualism, improved awareness of cultural diversity, and higher
levels of academic achievement by means of lessons in two languages.
The 90/10 and 50/50 models
There are two basic models for dual language immersion. The first model is the 90/10 model.
The two-way bilingual immersion program has 90% of the instructions in
grades K-1 in the minority language, which is less supported by the
broader society, and 10% in the majority language. This proportion
gradually changes in the majority language until the curriculum is
equally divided in both languages by 5th grade. The two-way bilingual
immersion program is based on the principle of clear curriculum
separation of the two languages of instruction. Teachers do not repeat
or translate the subject matter in the second language but strengthen
concepts taught in one language across the two languages in a spiral
curriculum in order to provide cognitive challenge (Thomas &
Collier, 1997). The languages of instructions are alternated by theme or
content area. This type of immersion is required to develop the dual
language proficiency, as social language can be mastered in couple of
years, but a higher level of competency is required to read social
studies texts or solve mathematics word problems, roughly around 5 to 7
years (Collier, 1987). The goal of gradually increasing the majority of
the language is for instruction to become 50% of English and 50% of the
partner language. The second model is the 50/50 model. In the 50/50 model English and the partner language are used equally throughout the program.
Dual immersion programs in the US
Dual
immersion classrooms encourage students' native language development,
making an important contribution to heritage language maintenance, and
allow language minority students to remain in classrooms with their
native English-speaking peers, resulting in linguistic and
socio-cultural advantages. As of May 2005, there were 317 dual immersion
programs operating in elementary schools in the United States in 10
different languages.
Dual language programs are less common in US schools, although
research indicates they are extremely effective in helping students
learn English well and aiding the long-term performance of English
learners in school. Native English speakers benefit by learning a second
language. English language learners (ELLs) are not segregated from
their peers. These students are taught in their mother tongue yet still
in the typical "American" classroom, for both cognitive and social
benefits.
Transitional bilingual education involves education in a
child's native language to ensure that students do not fall behind in
content areas such as mathematics, science, and social studies while
they are learning English. When the child's English proficiency is
deemed satisfactory, they can then transition to an English Only (EO)
environment. Research has shown that many of the skills learned in the
native language can be transferred easily to the second language later.
While the linguistic goal of such programs is to help students
transition to mainstream, English-only classrooms, the use of the
student's primary language as a vehicle to develop literacy skills and
acquire academic knowledge also prevents the degeneration of a child's
native language. This program model is often used in U.S. public
schools.
This program entails learning English while with people that speak
the same native language. ESL is a supplementary, comprehensive English
language program for students trying to learn the language to better
function in American society. People are learning English as a second
language because English has been assigned communicative status in that
country. Singapore, India, Malawi, and 50 other territories use English
as part of the country's leading institutions, where it plays a
second-language role in a multilingual society. ESL is different from
EFL (English as a foreign language). ESL is offered at many schools to
accommodate the culturally diverse students, most often found in urban
areas, and helps these students keep up with subjects such as math and
science. To teach ESL abroad, a bachelor's degree and ESL teaching
qualification is typically required at minimum.
Late-exit or developmental bilingual education
In
this program model, education is in the child's native language for an
extended duration, accompanied by education in English. The goal is to
develop literacy in the child's native language first, and transfer
these skills to the second language. This education is ideal for many
English learning students, but in many instances the resources for such
education are not available.
Effects of mother-tongue instruction
Continuing
to foster the abilities of children's mother tongue along with other
languages has proven essential for their personal and educational
development because they retain their cultural identity and gain a
deeper understanding of language. Two 2016 studies of mother-tongue
instruction in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively show that it had positive
outcomes for the students in both countries. The following list
contains multiple benefits that researchers have found from children
being educated bilingually.
Empathy
Theory
of mind is connected to empathy because it helps us to understand the
beliefs, desires, and thoughts of others. Researchers studying theory of
mind in bilingual and monolingual preschoolers found that bilingual
preschoolers performed significantly higher on theory of mind false
belief tasks than their monolingual peers.
Reading
Researchers
found that students in a dual-language immersion program in Portland
Oregon performed better in English reading and writing skills than their
peers.
Attention
Many
studies have shown that bilingual children tend to have better
executive function abilities. These are often measured using tasks that
require inhibition and task switching. Bilingual children are typically
able to hold their attention for longer without becoming distracted and
are better able to switch from one task to another.
School performance and engagement
Researchers
Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier conducted school program evaluation
research across 15 states. They found that students in dual-language
classroom environments have better outcomes than their peers in
English-only classrooms in regards to attendance, behavior, and parent
involvement.
The
idea that 'people naïvely believe they see things objectively and
others do not' has been acknowledged for quite some time in the field of
social psychology. For example, while studying social cognition, Solomon Asch and Gustav Ichheiser wrote in 1949:
"[W]e tend to resolve our perplexity arising out of the
experience that other people see the world differently than we see it
ourselves by declaring that those others, in consequence of some basic
intellectual and moral defect, are unable to see the things “as they
really are” and to react to them “in a normal way.” We thus imply, of
course, that things are in fact as we see them and that our ways are the
normal ways."
Formal laboratory experimentation (1999)
The
formal proposal of naïve cynicism came from Kruger and Gilovich's 1999
study called "'Naive cynicism' in everyday theories of responsibility
assessment: On biased assumptions of bias".
Naïve cynicism can be thought of as the counter to naïve realism, which is the belief that an individual perceives the social world objectively while others perceive it subjectively.
It is important to discern that naïve cynicism is related to the
notion that others have an egocentric bias that motivates them to do
things for their own self-interest rather than for altruistic reasons.
Both of these theories, however, relate to the extent that adults credit or discredit the beliefs or statements of others.
Relating to psychological egoism
Psychological egoism is the belief that humans are always motivated by self-interest.
In a related quote, Joel Feinberg, in his 1958 paper "Psychological Egoism", embraces a similar critique by drawing attention to the infinite regress of psychological egoism:
"All men desire only satisfaction."
"Satisfaction of what?"
"Satisfaction of their desires."
"Their desires for what?"
"Their desires for satisfaction."
"Satisfaction of what?"
"Their desires."
"For what?"
"For satisfaction"—etc., ad infinitum.
The circular reasoning
evidenced by Feinberg's quote exemplifies how this view can be thought
of as the need for others to have incessant personal desires and
satisfaction.
Definition
There are several ways to define naïve cynicism such as:
The tendency to expect others’ judgments will have a
motivational bias and therefore will be biased in the direction of their
self-interest.
Expecting that others are motivationally biased when determining responsibility for positive and negative outcomes.
When our assumptions of others' biases exceed their actual biases.
Examples
Historical examples
Cold War
The American reaction to a Russian SALT treaty during the Cold War
is one well-known example of naïve cynicism in history. Political
leaders negotiating on behalf of the United States discredited the offer
simply because it was proposed by the Russian side.
Former U.S. congressman Floyd Spence indicates the use of naïve cynicism in this quote:
"I have had a philosophy for some time in regard to SALT, and it
goes like this: the Russians will not accept a SALT treaty that is not
in their best interest, and it seems to me that if it is their best
interests, it can‘t be in our best interest."
Marketplace
Consumers
exhibit naïve cynicism toward commercial companies and advertisers
through suspicion and awareness toward marketing strategies used by such
companies.
Politics
The public displays naïve cynicism toward governments and political leaders through distrust.
Decision-making behavior
Naïve cynicism can be exemplified in some decision-making behaviors such as:
Overestimating the influence of financial compensation on people’s willingness to give blood.
If another person tends to favor himself when interpreting uncertain
information, someone exhibiting naïve cynicism would believe the other
person is intentionally misleading them for their own advantage.
Assuming that group membership has a large influence on beliefs and attitudes.
If an individual of one political party makes an interpretation
or a statement in favor of his own party and thus in accord with his
self-interest, other adults discount his statement (especially if they
belong to an opposing party).
Likewise, if that individual makes a statement against his own self-interest, adults are more likely to believe him.
Resulting negative outcomes
Naïve cynicism can contribute to several negative outcomes including:
Over-thinking the actions of others.
Making negative attributions about others' motivations without sufficient cause.
Missing opportunities that greater trust might capture.
Reducing
The major strategy to attenuate naïve cynicism in individuals has been shown by:
Viewing the other person as part of one's in-group or acknowledging they are working in cooperation.
As a result of applying this strategy, happier married couples were
less likely to exhibit cynical beliefs about each other’s judgments.
Individuals are especially likely to exhibit naïve cynicism when
the other person has a vested interest in the judgment at hand. However,
if the other person is dispassionate about the judgment at hand, the
individual will be less likely to engage in naïve cynicism and think the
other person will see things the way they do.
Psychological contexts
Naïve cynicism may play a major role in these psychology-related contexts:
Groups
In one
series of classic experiments by Kruger and Gilovich, groups including
video game players, darts players and debaters were asked how often they
were responsible for good or bad events relative to their partner.
Participants evenly apportioned themselves for both good and bad events,
but expected their partner to claim more responsibility for good events
than bad events (egocentric bias) than they actually did.
Marriage
In
the same study conducted by Kruger and Gilovich, married couples were
also examined and ultimately exhibited the same type of naïve cynicism
about their marriage partner as did partners of dart players, video game
players and debaters.
Altruism
Naïve
cynicism has been exemplified in the context of altruism. Explanations
of selfless human behavior have been described in terms of individuals
seeking personal advantage as opposed to absolute altruism.
For example, naïve cynicism would explain the act of an
individual donating money or items to charity as a way of
self-enhancement rather than for altruistic purposes.
Dispositionists vs. situationists
Dispositionists
are described as individuals who believe people's actions are
conditioned by some internal factor, such as beliefs, values,
personality traits or abilities, rather than the situation they find
themselves in.
Situationists, in contrast, are described as individuals who
believe people's actions are conditioned by external factors outside of
one's control.
Dispositionists exemplify naïve cynicism while situationists do not.
Therefore, situationist attributions are often thought to be more
accurate than dispositionist attributions. However, dispositionist
attributions are commonly believed to be the dominant schema because
situationist attributions tend to be dismissed or attacked.
In a direct quote from Benforado and Hanson's paper titled "Naïve Cynicism: Maintaining False Perceptions in Policy Debates", the situationist and dispositionist are described as:
"...the naïve cynic is a self-aware—even proud—critic.
She speaks what she believes to be the truth, though it may require disparaging her opponents.
She senses that she is delving below the surface of the complex
arguments of the situationists; she “sees,” for example, the financial
interest, the prejudice, or the distorting zealotry that motivates the
situationist.
She “sees” the bias and self-interest in those who would
disagree—while maintaining an affirming view of herself as objective and
other-regarding.
The naïve cynic, then, is a dispositionist who cynically
dispositionalizes the situationist. :She protects fundamentally flawed
attributions by attacking the sources of potentially more accurate
attributions.
Dispositionists might explain bankruptcy as the largely self-inflicted result of personal laziness and/or imprudence.
Situationists might explain bankruptcy as frequently caused by more
complicated external forces, such as divorce or the medical and other
costs of unanticipated illness.
Applied contexts
In addition to purely psychological contexts, naïve cynicism may play a major role in several applied contexts such as:
Negotiations
Naïve
cynicism has been studied extensively in several contexts of
negotiating such as bargaining tactics, specifically in the sense that
too much naïve cynicism can be costly.
Negotiators displaying naïve cynicism rely on distributive and
competitive strategies and focus on gaining concessions rather than on
problem-solving. This can be detrimental and lead to reduced information
exchange, information concealment, coordination, cooperation and
quality of information revealed.
Reducing naïve cynicism in negotiations
The following strategies have been identified as ways to reduce naïve cynicism in the context of negotiations:
Perspective taking
It
has been shown that individuals who focus more on the perspectives of
their opponents were more successful in experimental laboratory
negotiations.
Taking another person's perspective produced better predictions
of opponents' goals and biases, though it is noted that many individuals
lack the ability to properly change perspectives. These incapable
individuals tend to view their opponents as passive and can be prone to
ignore valuable information disseminated during negotiations.
Negotiator role reversal
is believed to be an important focus of training for individuals to be
less inclined to use naïve cynicism during negotiations. This process
involves having each negotiator verbally consider their opponents
perspective prior to making any judgements.
Communication
It has been shown when communication between opponents in negotiations is strong, negotiators are more likely to avoid stalemates.
Negotiators who exhibit strong communication skills tend to
believe integrity should be reciprocally displayed by both sides and
thus regard open communication as a positive aspect in negotiations.
Those negotiators high in communication skills also tend to view
deadlocks as a negative event and will avoid reaching an impasse in
order to reach an agreement.
Feedback
Despite attempts to reduce errors of naïve cynicism in laboratory studies with error-related feedback, errors still persisted even after many trials and strong feedback.
Governmental policy debates
In
relation to governmental policy debates, it is hypothesized that naïve
cynicism fosters a distrust of other political parties and entities.
Naïve cynicism is thought to be a critical contributor for why certain
legal policies succeed and others fail.
Religious violence in India includes acts of violence by
followers of one religious group against followers and institutions of
another religious group, often in the form of rioting. Religious violence in India has generally involved Hindus and Muslims.
Despite the secular and religiously tolerant constitution of India,
broad religious representation in various aspects of society including
the government, the active role played by autonomous bodies such as National Human Rights Commission of India and National Commission for Minorities,
and the ground-level work being done by non-governmental organisations,
sporadic and sometimes serious acts of religious violence tend to occur
as the root causes of religious violence often run deep in history,
religious activities, and politics of India.
Along with domestic organizations, international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish reports
on acts of religious violence in India. From 2005 to 2009, an average
of 130 people died every year from communal violence, or about 0.01
deaths per 100,000 population. The state of Maharashtra reported the highest total number of religious violence related fatalities over that five-year period, while Madhya Pradesh experienced the highest fatality rate per year per 100,000 population between 2005 and 2009. Over 2012, a total of 97 people died across India from various riots related to religious violence.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom classified
India as Tier-2 in persecuting religious minorities, the same as that of
Iraq and Egypt. In a 2018 report, USCIRF charged Hindu nationalist groups for their campaign to "Saffronize" India through violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindus. Approximately one-third of state governments enforced anti-conversion and/or anti-cow slaughter
laws against non-Hindus, and mobs engaged in violence against Muslims
whose families have been engaged in the dairy, leather, or beef trades
for generations, and against Christians for proselytizing. "Cow
protection" lynch mobs killed at least 10 victims in 2017.
Many historians argue that religious violence in independent India is a legacy of the policy of divide and rule pursued by the British colonial authorities during the era of Britain's control over the Indian subcontinent, in which local administrators pitted Hindus and Muslims against one another, a tactic that eventually culminated in the partition of India.
Ancient India
Ancient text Ashokavadana, a part of the Divyavadana, mention a non-Buddhist in Pundravardhana drew a picture showing the Buddha bowing at the feet of Nirgrantha Jnatiputra (identified with Mahavira, 24th tirthankara of Jainism). On complaint from a Buddhist devotee, Ashoka, an emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, issued an order to arrest him, and subsequently, another order to kill all the Ajivikas in Pundravardhana. Around 18,000 followers of the Ajivika sect were executed as a result of this order. Sometime later, another Nirgrantha follower in Pataliputra drew a similar picture. Ashoka burnt him and his entire family alive in their house. He also announced an award of one dinara (silver coin) for the head of a Nirgrantha. According to Ashokavadana, as a result of this order, his own brother, Vitashoka,
was mistaken for a heretic and killed by a cowherd. Their ministers
advised that "this is an example of the suffering that is being
inflicted even on those who are free from desire" and that he "should
guarantee the security of all beings". After this, Ashoka stopped giving
orders for executions. According to K. T. S. Sarao and Benimadhab Barua, stories of persecutions of rival sects by Ashoka appear to be a clear fabrication arising out of sectarian propaganda.
The Divyavadana (divine stories), an anthology of Buddhist
mythical tales on morals and ethics, many using talking birds and
animals, was written in about 2nd century AD. In one of the stories, the
razing of stupas and viharas is mentioned with Pushyamitra. This has been historically mapped to the reign of King Pushyamitra of the Shunga Empire
about 400 years before Divyavadana was written. Archeological remains
of stupas have been found in Deorkothar that suggest deliberate
destruction, conjectured to be one mentioned in Divyavadana about
Pushyamitra.
It is unclear when the Deorkothar stupas were destroyed, and by whom.
The fictional tales of Divyavadana is considered by scholars as being of doubtful value as a historical record. Moriz Winternitz, for example, stated, "these legends [in the Divyāvadāna] scarcely contain anything of much historical value".
The first inquisitors, Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques, established themselves in what was formerly the king of Goa's palace, forcing the Portuguese viceroy
to relocate to a smaller residence. The inquisitor's first act was
forbidding Hindus from the public practice of their faith through fear
of imprisonment. Sephardic Jews living in Goa, many of whom had fled the Iberian Peninsula to escape the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition to begin with, were also targeted. During the Goa Inquisition, described as "contrary to humanity" by anti-clericalVoltaire, conversion efforts were practiced en masse and tens of thousands of Goan people converted to Catholicism between 1561 and 1774. The few records that have survived suggest that around 57 were executed
for their religious crime, and another 64 were burned in effigy because they had already died in jail before sentencing.
The adverse effects of the inquisition forced hundreds of Hindus, Muslims and Catholics to escape Portuguese hegemony by migrating to other parts of the subcontinent. Though officially repressed in 1774, it was nominally reinstated by Queen Maria I in 1778.
In 1813, the East India Company charter was amended to allow for government sponsored missionary activity across British India. The missionaries soon spread almost everywhere and started denigrating Hindu and Islamic practices like Sati and child marriage, as well as promoting Christianity.
Many officers of the British East India Company, such as Herbert
Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheeler, openly preached to the Sepoys.
Such activities caused a great deal of resentment and a fear of forced
conversions among Indian soldiers of the Company and civilians alike.
There was a perception that the company was trying to convert
Hindus and Muslims to Christianity, which is often cited as one of the
causes of the revolt. The revolt is considered by some historians as a semi-national and semi-religious war seeking independence from British rule though Saul David questions this interpretation. The revolt started, among the Indian sepoys
of British East India Company, when the British introduced new rifle
cartridges, rumoured to be greased with pig and cow fat—an abhorrent
concept to Muslim and Hindu soldiers, respectively, for religious
reasons. 150,000 Indians and 6,000 Britons were killed during the 1857
rebellion.
Partition of Bengal (1905)
The British colonial era, since the 18th century, portrayed and
treated Hindus and Muslims as two divided groups, both in cultural terms
and for the purposes of governance.
The British favoured Muslims in the early period of colonial rule to
gain influence in Mughal India, but underwent a shift in policies after
the 1857 rebellion. A series of religious riots in the late 19th
century, such as those of 1891, 1896 and 1897 religious riots of
Calcutta, raised concerns within British Raj.
The rising political movement for independence of India, and colonial
government's administrative strategies to neutralize it, pressed the
British to make the first attempt to partition the most populous
province of India, Bengal.
Bengal was partitioned by the British colonial government, in
1905, along religious lines—a Muslim majority state of East Bengal and a
Hindu majority state of West Bengal.
The partition was deeply resented, seen by both groups as evidence of
British favoritism to the other side. Waves of religious riots hit
Bengal through 1907. The religious violence worsened, and the partition
was reversed in 1911.
The reversal did little to calm the religious violence in India, and
Bengal alone witnessed at least nine violent riots, between Muslims and
Hindus, in the 1910s through the 1930s.
Moplah Rebellion was an Anti Jenmi rebellion conducted by the MuslimMoplah (Mappila) community of Kerala in 1921. Inspired by the Khilafat movement and the Karachi resolution; Moplahs murdered, pillaged, and forcibly converted thousands of Hindus. 100,000 Hindus
were driven away from their homes forcing to leave their property
behind, which were later taken over by Moplahs. This greatly changed the
demographics of the area, being the major cause behind today's Malappuram district being a Muslim majority district in Kerala.
According to one view, the reasons for the Moplah rebellion was
religious revivalism among the Muslim Moplahs, and hostility towards the
landlord Hindu Nair, NambudiriJenmi community and the British administration that supported the latter. Adhering to view, British records call it a British-Muslim
revolt. The initial focus was on the government, but when the limited
presence of the government was eliminated, Moplahs turned their full
attention on attacking Hindus. Mohommed Haji
was proclaimed the Caliph of the Moplah Khilafat and flags of Islamic
Caliphate were flown. Ernad and Walluvanad were declared Khilafat
kingdoms.
Annie Besant wrote about the riots: "They Moplahs
murdered and plundered abundantly, and killed or drove away all Hindus
who would not apostatise. Somewhere about a lakh (100,000) of people
were driven from their homes with nothing but their clothes they had on,
stripped of everything. Malabar has taught us what Islamic rule still
means, and we do not want to see another specimen of the Khilafat Raj in
India."
As colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent was ending, there was large-scale religious violence. Corpses with vultures in Kolkata after the 1946 riots (left), a Jain neighborhood and Hindu temple after arson attacks in Ahmedabad in 1946 (middle) and Sikhs escaping violence across the Indo-Pakistani Punjab border in 1947.
Direct Action Day, which started on 16 August 1946, left approximately 3,000 Hindus dead and 17,000 injured.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British colonial government followed a divide-and-rule
policy, exploiting existing differences between communities, to prevent
similar revolts from taking place. In that respect, Indian Muslims were
encouraged to forge a cultural and political identity separate from the
Hindus. In the years leading up to Independence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah became increasingly concerned about minority position of Islam in an independent India largely composed of a Hindu majority.
Although a partition plan was accepted, no large population
movements were contemplated. As India and Pakistan become independent,
14.5 million people crossed borders to ensure their safety in an
increasingly lawless and communal environment. With British authority
gone, the newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal
with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and
slaughter occurred on both sides of the border along communal lines.
Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low
estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at one million.
Religious violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims during September–October 1969, in Gujarat. It was the most deadly Hindu-Muslim violence since the 1947 partition of India.
The violence included attacks on Muslim chawls by their Dalit neighbours. The violence continued over a week, then the rioting restarted a month later. Some 660 people were killed (430 Muslims, 230 Hindus), 1074 people were injured and over 48,000 lost their property.
In the 1970s, Sikhs in Punjab had sought autonomy and complained about domination by the Hindu. Indira Gandhi government arrested thousands of Sikhs for their opposition and demands particularly during Indian Emergency.
In Indira Gandhi's attempt to "save democracy" through the Emergency,
India's constitution was suspended, 140,000 people were arrested without
due process, of which 40,000 were Sikhs.
After the Emergency was lifted, during elections, she supported Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh leader, in an effort to undermine the Akali Dal,
the largest Sikh political party. However, Bhindranwale began to oppose
the central government and moved his political base to the Darbar Sahib (Golden temple) in Amritsar, demanding creation on Punjab as a new country. In June 1984, under orders from Indira Gandhi, the Indian army attacked the Golden temple with tanks
and armoured vehicles, due to the presence of Sikh Khalistanis armed
with weapons inside. Thousands of Sikhs died during the attack. In retaliation for the storming of the Golden temple, Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by two Sikh bodyguards.
The assassination provoked mass rioting against Sikh. During the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in Delhi, government and police officials aided Indian National Congress party worker gangs in "methodically and systematically" targeting Sikhs and Sikh homes.
As a result of the pogroms 10,000–17,000 were burned alive or otherwise
killed, Sikh people suffered massive property damage, and at least
50,000 Sikhs were displaced.
The 1984 riots fueled the Sikh insurgency movement. In the peak
years of the insurgency, religious violence by separatists,
government-sponsored groups, and the paramilitary arms of the government
was endemic on all sides. Human Rights Watch
reports that separatists were responsible for "massacre of civilians,
attacks upon Hindu minorities in the state, indiscriminate bomb attacks
in crowded places, and the assassination of a number of political
leaders".
Human Rights Watch also stated that the Indian Government's response
"led to the arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial execution, and
enforced disappearance of thousands of Sikhs". The insurgency paralyzed Punjab's economy until peace initiatives and elections were held in the 1990s. Allegations of coverup and shielding of political leaders of Indian National Congress over their role in 1984 riot crimes, have been widespread.
In the Kashmir region, approximately 300 Kashmiri Pandits were killed between September 1989 to 1990 in various incidents. In early 1990, local Urdu newspapers Aftab and Al Safa called upon Kashmiris to wage jihad against India and ordered the expulsion of all Hindus choosing to remain in Kashmir. In the following days masked men ran in the streets with AK-47 shooting to kill Hindus who would not leave. Notices were placed on the houses of all Hindus, telling them to leave within 24 hours or die.
Since March 1990, estimates of between 300,000 and 500,000 pandits have migrated outside Kashmir due to persecution by Islamic fundamentalists in the largest case of ethnic cleansing since the partition of India.
Religion has begun to play an increasing role in reinforcing ethnic
divides among the decades-old militant separatist movements in
north-east India.
The Christian separatist group National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) has proclaimed bans on Hindu worship and has attacked animist Reangs and Hindu Jamatia tribesmen in the state of Tripura. Some resisting tribal leaders have been killed and some tribal women raped.
According to The Government of Tripura, the Baptist Church of Tripura is involved in supporting the NLFT and arrested two church officials in 2000, one of them for possessing explosives. In late 2004, the National Liberation Front of Tripura banned all Hindu celebrations of Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja. The Naga insurgency, militants have largely depended on their Christian ideological base for their cause.
Anti-Hindu violence
Maddur Mosque inscription declaring that Muslims have agreed not to object to non-Muslim religious processions.
In August 2000, Swami Shanti Kali, a popular Hindu priest, was shot to death inside his ashram in the Indian state of Tripura. Police reports regarding the incident identified ten members of the Christian terrorist organisation, NLFT,
as being responsible for the murder. On 4 Dec 2000, nearly three months
after his death, an ashram set up by Shanti Kali at Chachu Bazar near
the Sidhai police station was raided by Christian militants belonging to
the NLFT. Eleven of the priest's ashrams, schools, and orphanages
around the state were burned down by the NLFT.
In September 2008, Swami Laxmanananda, a popular regional Hindu Guru was murdered along with four of his disciples by unknown assailants (though a Maoist organisation later claimed responsibility for that). Later the police arrested three Christians in connection with the murder. Congress MP Radhakant Nayak has also been named as a suspected person in the murder, with some Hindu leaders calling for his arrest.
Lesser incidents of religious violence happen in many towns and villages in India. In October 2005, five people were killed in Mau in Uttar Pradesh during Muslim rioting, which was triggered by the proposed celebration of a Hindu festival.
On 3 and 4 January 2002, eight Hindus were killed in Marad, near Kozhikode due to scuffles between two groups that began after a dispute over drinking water.
On 2 May 2003, eight Hindus were killed by a Muslim mob, in what is believed to be a sequel to the earlier incident. One of the attackers, Mohammed Ashker was killed during the chaos. The National Development Front (NDF), a right-wing militant Islamist organisation, was suspected as the perpetrator of the Marad massacre.
In the 2010 Deganga riots
after hundreds of Hindu business establishments and residences were
looted, destroyed and burnt, dozens of Hindus were killed or severely
injured and several Hindu temples desecrated and vandalised by the Islamist mobs allegedly led by Trinamul Congress MP Haji Nurul Islam. Three years later, during the 2013 Canning riots, several hundred Hindu businesses were targeted and destroyed by Islamist mobs in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Religious violence has led to the death, injuries and damage to numerous Hindus. For example, 254 Hindus were killed in 2002 Gujarat riots out of which half were killed in police firing and rest by rioters. During 1992 Bombay riots, 275 Hindus died.
In October, 2018, a Christian personal security officer of an
additional sessions judge assassinated his 38-year-old wife and his
18-year-old son for not converting to Christianity.
In October 2020, a 20-year old Nikita Tomar was shot by Tausif, a Muslim, for not converting to Islam and marrying to him. Tausif was imprisoned for life.
Some cases of murder because of blasphemy have also taken place. Kamlesh Tiwari was murdered for his allegedly blasphemous comments on Muhammad in October 2019. A similar case took place in Gujrat in January 2022 where Kishan Bharvad was murdered for making a allegedly blasphemous social media post on Muhammad on the directive of a Muslim cleric. A Hindu man named Nagaraju was murdered by a Muslim man for marrying a Muslim woman.
The history of modern India has many incidents of communal violence.
During the 1947 partition there was religious violence between
Muslim-Hindu, Muslim-Sikhs and Muslim-Jains on a gigantic scale.
Hundreds of religious riots have been recorded since then, in every
decade of independent India. In these riots, the victims have included
many Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and Buddhists.
On 6 December 1992, members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal destroyed the 430-year-old Babri Mosque in Ayodhya—it was claimed by the Hindus that the mosque was built over the birthplace of the ancient deity Rama
(and a 2010 Allahabad court ruled that the site was indeed a Hindu
monument before the mosque was built there, based on evidence submitted
by the Archaeological Survey of India). The resulting religious riots caused at least 1200 deaths.
Since then the Government of India has blocked off or heavily increased
security at these disputed sites while encouraging attempts to resolve
these disputes through court cases and negotiations.
In the aftermath of the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu nationalists on 6 December 1992, riots took place between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Mumbai.
Four people died in a fire in the Asalpha timber mart at Ghatkopar,
five were killed in the burning of Bainganwadi; shacks along the harbour
line track between Sewri and Cotton Green stations were gutted; and a
couple was pulled out of a rickshaw in Asalpha village and burnt to
death.
The riots changed the demographics of Mumbai greatly, as Hindus moved
to Hindu-majority areas and Muslims moved to Muslim-majority areas.
The Godhra train burning incident in which Hindus were burned alive allegedly by Muslims by closing door of train, led to the 2002 Gujarat riots in which mostly Muslims were killed. According to the death toll given to the parliament on 11 May 2005 by the United Progressive Alliance
government, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and another 2,548
injured. 223 people are missing. The report placed the number of riot
widows at 919 and 606 children were declared orphaned. According to hone advocacy group, the death tolls were up to 2000. According to the Congressional Research Service, up to 2000 people were killed in the violence.
Tens of thousands were displaced from their homes because of the violence. According to New York Times reporter Celia Williams Dugger,
witnesses were dismayed by the lack of intervention from local police,
who often watched the events taking place and took no action against the
attacks on Muslims and their property. Sangh leaders as well as the Gujarat government maintain that the violence was rioting or inter-communal clashes—spontaneous and uncontrollable reaction to the Godhra train burning.
The Government of India has implemented almost all the recommendations of the Sachar Committee to help Muslims.
The February 2020 North East Delhi riots, which left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, were triggered by protests against a citizenship law seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda.
A 1999 Human Rights Watch report states increasing levels of religious violence on Christians in India, perpetrated by Hindu organizations.
In 2000, acts of religious violence against Christians included
forcible reconversion of converted Christians to Hinduism, distribution
of threatening literature and destruction of Christian cemeteries.
According to a 2008 report by Hudson Institute, "extremist Hindus have
increased their attacks on Christians, until there are now several
hundred per year. But this did not make news in the U.S. until a
foreigner was attacked."
In Orissa, starting December 2007, Christians have been attacked in Kandhamal
and other districts, resulting in the deaths of two Hindus and one
Christian, and the destruction of houses and churches. Hindus claim that
Christians killed a Hindu saint Laxmananand, and the attacks on
Christians were in retaliation. However, there was no conclusive proof
to support this claim. Twenty people were arrested following the attacks on churches.
Similarly, starting 14 September 2008, there were numerous incidents of violence against the Christian community in Karnataka.
In 2007, foreign Christian missionaries became targets of attacks.
Graham Stuart Staines (1941 – 23 January 1999) an Australian Christian missionary who, along with his two sons Philip (aged 10) and Timothy (aged 6), was burnt to death by a gang of HinduBajrang Dal fundamentalists while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Kendujhar district in Odisha, India on 23 January 1999. In 2003, a Bajrang Dal activist, Dara Singh, was convicted of leading the gang that murdered Graham Staines and his sons, and was sentenced to life in prison.
In its annual human rights reports for 1999, the United States Department of State criticised India for "increasing societal violence against Christians."
The report listed over 90 incidents of anti-Christian violence, ranging
from damage of religious property to violence against Christian
pilgrims.
In Madhya Pradesh, unidentified persons set two statues inside St Peter and Paul Church in Jabalpur on fire. In Karnataka, religious violence was targeted against Christians in 2008.
Riots incidence rates per 100,000 people in India during 2012. Kerala reported the highest riot incidence rate in 2012, while Punjab and Meghalaya reported zero riot incidence rates.
Communal violence in India
Year
Incidents
Deaths
Injured
2005
779
124
2066
2006
698
133
2170
2007
761
99
2227
2008
943
167
2354
2009
849
125
2461
2010
701
116
2138
2011
580
91
1899
2012
668
94
2117
2013
823
133
2269
2014
644
95
1921
2015
751
97
2264
2016
703
86
2321
2017
822
111
2384
From 2005 to 2009, an average of 130 people died every year from communal riots, and 2,200 were injured.
In pre-partitioned India, over the 1920–1940 period, numerous communal
violence incidents were recorded, an average of 381 people died per year
during religious violence, and thousands were injured.
According to PRS India,
24 out of 35 states and union territories of India reported instances
of religious riots over the five years from 2005 to 2009. However, most
religious riots resulted in property damage but no injuries or
fatalities. The highest incidences of communal violence in the five-year
period were reported from Maharashtra (700). The other three states
with high counts of communal violence over the same five-year period
were Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Together, these four
states accounted for 64% of all deaths from communal violence. Adjusted
for widely different population per state, the highest rate of communal
violence fatalities were reported by Madhya Pradesh, at 0.14 death per
100,000 people over five years, or 0.03 deaths per 100,000 people per
year.
There was a wide regional variation in rate of death caused by communal
violence per 100,000 people. The India-wide average communal violence
fatality rate per year was 0.01 person per 100,000 people per year. The
world's average annual death rate from intentional violence, in recent
years, has been 7.9 per 100,000 people.
For 2012,
there were 93 deaths in India from many incidences of communal violence
(or 0.007 fatalities per 100,000 people). Of these, 48 were Muslims, 44
Hindus and one police official. The riots also injured 2,067 people, of
which 1,010 were Hindus, 787 Muslims, 222 police officials and 48
others. Over 2013, 107 people were killed during religious riots (or
0.008 total fatalities per 100,000 people), of which 66 were Muslims, 41
were Hindus. The various riots in 2013 also injured 1,647 people
including 794 Hindus, 703 Muslims and 200 policemen.
International human rights reports
The 2007 United States Department of State International Religious Freedom Report noted The
Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the National
Government generally respected this right in practice. However, some
state and local governments limited this freedom in practice.
The 2008 Human Rights Watch report notes: India
claims an abiding commitment to human rights, but its record is marred
by continuing violations by security forces in counterinsurgency
operations and by government failure to rigorously implement laws and
policies to protect marginalised communities. A vibrant media and civil
society continue to press for improvements, but without tangible signs
of success in 2007.
The 2007 Amnesty International report listed several issues concern in India and noted Justice and rehabilitation continued to evade most victims of the 2002 Gujarat communal violence.
The 2007 United States Department of State Human Rights Report noted that the government generally respected the rights of its citizens; however, numerous serious problems remained. The report which has received a lot of controversy internationally,
as it does not include human rights violations of United States and its
allies, has generally been rejected by political parties in India as
interference in internal affairs, including in the Lower House of Parliament.
In a 2018 report, United Nations Human Rights office expressed
concerns over attacks directed at minorities and Dalits in India. The
statement came in an annual report to the United Nations Human Rights
Council's March 2018 session where Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said,
"In India, I am increasingly disturbed by discrimination and violence
directed at minorities, including Dalits and other scheduled castes,
and religious minorities such as Muslims. In some cases this injustice
appears actively endorsed by local or religious officials. I am
concerned that criticism of government policies is frequently met by
claims that it constitutes sedition or a threat to national security. I
am deeply concerned by efforts to limit critical voices through the
cancellation or suspension of registration of thousands of NGOs,
including groups advocating for human rights and even public health
groups."
In film and literature
Religious violence in India have been a topic of various films and novels.
Bombay,
a 1995 film centred on events during the period of December 1992 to
January 1993 in India, and the controversy surrounding the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya
Parzania, a 2007 film about the riots in Gujarat in 2002 The film was purposely not released in Gujarat. Cinema owners and distributors in Gujarat refused to screen the film out of fear of retaliation by Hindu activists. Hindutva groups in Gujarat threatened to attack theatres that showed the film.
Slumdog Millionaire, a 2008 British crimedrama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian authorVikas Swarup, telling the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhuslums of Mumbai. The violence of the Bombay riots
is an instrumental part of the plot of the film as the protagonist,
Jamal Malik's mother is among those killed in the riots, and he later
remarks "If it wasn't for Rama and Allah, we'd still have a mother."
Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai, a documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riot
Punjab 1984, a 2014 Indian Punjabi period drama film based on the 1984–86 Punjab insurgency's impact on social life
Man with the White Beard, 2018 fiction by Dr Shah Alam Khan
set in the backdrop of three major riots of India: the anti Sikh riots
of 1984, the anti Muslim riots of Gujarat in 2002 and the anti Christian
riots of Kandhamal in 2008
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