Communalism refers to communities of belonging and especially to such communities in Indian society. More specifically, it refers to the articulation of religious communities into mutually antagonistic, social, political, and economic groups. It emerges within the context of the colonial modernization of Indian society, in which the Indian population was classified, counted, and measured in terms of community. Communalist ideologies emerged in India in the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh communities. Today they are connected to forms of transnational community.