1. There was hardly any communal ideology or communal politics before the 1870s. It had its roots in the modern colonial socio-economic political structure.
The Post Revolt anti-Muslim attitude of the Britishers changed in the 1870s with the rise of the Indian Nationalism.
They now followed more actively the policy of divide and rule and championed the cause of Muslims.
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2. Communalism emerged as a result of the emergence of new mass-based modern politics which necessitated wider links and loyalties among the people, and formation of new identities based on the birth and spread of modern ideas of nations, class and cultural linguistic identities.
3. Religious consciousness got transformed into communal consciousness in some parts of the country and among some sections of the people.
4. Nationalism failed to spread equally rapidly among the Muslim lower middle class as it did among the Hindus and Parsis.
5. The Colonial Government treated Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs as separate communities and readily accepted communal leaders as their authentic representatives.
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It showed extraordinary tolerance to the propagation of virulent communal hatred through Press.
6. Post 1880, Syed Ahmed Khan played a pioneering role in the rise of communal separatism when he declared that the political interests of Hindus and Muslims were not the same but different and even divergent.
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He also preached complete obedience to British rule and even opposed the newly born INC by organizing a movement of loyalty with Raja Shiva Prasad of Varanasi.
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He also began to preach that since the Hindus formed the majority they would dominate the Muslims in case of the weakening or withdrawal of the British rule.