'Some scholars see partition as a culmination of a communal politics that started developing in the opening decades of the twentieth century.' Examine the statement.

Some scholars see Partition as a culmination of a communal politics that started developing in the opening decades of the twentieth century.

(i) They suggest that separate electorates for Muslims, created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919, crucially shaped the nature of communal politics.

(ii) This created a temptation for politicians working within this system to use sectarian slogans and gather a following by distributing favours to their own religious groups.

(iii) Religious identities thus acquired a functional use within a modern political system; and the logic of electoral politics deepened and hardened these identities. Community identities no longer indicated simple difference in faith and belief; they came to mean active opposition and hostility between communities.

(iv) During the 1920s and early 1930s tension grew around a number of issues. Muslims were angered by “music-before-mosque”, by the cow protection movement, and by the efforts of the Arya Samaj to bring back to the Hindu fold (shuddhi) those who had recently converted to Islam.

(v) Hindus were angered by the rapid spread of tabligh (propaganda) and tanzim (organisation) after 1923.