Communalism was one of the byproducts of colonialism, of the colonial character of the Indian economy, of colonial underdevelopment and, in recent years, of the failure and incapacity of capitalism to develop the economy and society. The lower middle classes were increasingly placed in a position of economic misery, lack of opportunity, constant threat to their existing position and increasing breakdown of their class position and social status and value systems. As a struggle it became increasingly sharp and bitter though often frustrating, leading to a sense of social deprivation and a constant fear of loss of status, created an atmosphere of violence and brutality which when triggered off by a religious issue led to communal riots. The petty bourgeois ego got tied up with the protection of such supposed rights – cow or peepal tree protection and music before mosque. Economic stagnation compelled people to compete for scarce opportunities which resulted in a perpetual and increasingly intense and unhealthy competition for jobs. This competition among individuals could be given the turn of being a struggle between two ‘communities’. Government or municipal bodies’ became the main avenue of employment, especially for the educated middle and lower middle classes, possessing little capital or land. Sectional groupings around individual interests became particularly important because they involved politics directly, making communalism ‘fruitful’ in this sphere for wider groups. Constitutional reforms increased the rivalry among classes. Almost all the basic guarantees demanded by the communal leaders for their communities referred to these two aspects. The dependence of the middle classes on government services placed the levers of patronage in the hands of the colonial state and the communal leaders capable of influencing appointments from within or without the administration. This could be used to encourage communalism and discourage nationalism among the job-hungry middle classes. Negotiations on the question of communal reservations enabled the communal leaders to emerge in the public eye as the champions of the ‘interests’ of their respective communities. The failure to fight communalism and communal type movements in post-independence India, Pakistan and Bangladesh can also perhaps be best explained on a similar basis. Communalism neither comprehended the problem correctly nor provided a correct solution.