Aspects of Hindu–Muslim divide in literature and the role of intelligentsia

The relation between state and religion had been ‘turned around’1 through the forces of colonial and postcolonial modernity. The practices of different communities came under the supervision of law and religious communities became self-conscious as community. Fuelled by the rivalries between the ‘frustrated’ middle classes of Hindus and Muslims and articulated effectively by the intelligentsia of both communities there emerged the ideology of communalism.2