Changes in Social and Religious Practices of Disputing Communities After Riot: A Case Study on Communal Violence in Ramu

The communal violence of Ramu in 2012 exposed the danger of communal cleavage in Bangladesh before the naked eye. This paper aims to explore the changes in social and religious behaviour of the conflicting or disputing communities after this incident of violence. To do that this it puts light on two areas which are changes in social practices of communities and change in religious practices of the community. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies used here. It founds some permanent changes happened mostly in behavioural mindset and practising religious rituals. Migration or changing of settlement due to security concern, declining of representation in socio-political leadership from the minority community, rising of lots of organisation from the minority community, a radical shift of religious practices from dawn to dusk, self-imposed restriction on practising religious freedom are few findings of this paper. Justice of the riot, increasing interfaith or interreligious, the neutral role of state could be some steps to way out for preventing permeant changes of the society and restoring the communal harmony. Keywords: Communal Violence, Social Changes, Religious Practices, Social Media DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/51-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2021