The term communalism is widely used across South Asia to describe the systematic misuse of religion for political purposes. It represents the processes of political construction of community identities along religious lines. Communal politics represents one's own religious community in an antagonistic relationship with 'the other religious community'. Socially engineered prejudice, tension and conflict between religious communities constitutes communalism.
(Harsh Kapoor, writing in Resources Against Communalism and Religious Fundamentalism in India).