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Intolerance in India - old or new?
Highlights
The murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and M M Kalburgi and writer Govind Pansare followed by the most unfortunate incident of lynching of a man in Dadri on suspicion of storing beef have all put the core values of India like tolerance & pluralism to a severe test.
It is unfair to criticise the current government for all acts of intolerance because such acts have occurred even before
The murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and M M Kalburgi and writer Govind Pansare followed by the most unfortunate incident of lynching of a man in Dadri on suspicion of storing beef have all put the core values of India like tolerance & pluralism to a severe test.
Intolerance threatens to sabotage the grand plans of India to fast-track its economic growth with the help of investments from abroad, by scaring away the foreign businesses. Once the economic growth slows down, it may not be hard for the extremist organisations to radicalise the restless unemployed youth. Also, terror organisations like IS trying hard to recruit gullible Indian youth may find it easy to lure young men belonging to the minority community into their fold. To avoid all these, we need to remind ourselves India's impeccable culture of tolerance.
India is the birth place of a number of religions, ranging from the most pessimistic Ajivika that believed in the doctrine of Niyati or pre-determination to the highly materialistic Charvaka or Lokayata. Hinduism is itself not a rigid religion but a confluence of various streams of thoughts and belief systems. Great emperors like Asoka showed tolerance towards other religions. He, despite being a Buddhist, constructed and donated 4 rock-cut cave temples at Barabar in Madhya Pradesh to Ajivikas. During the medieval period, another great emperor Akbar held scholarly discussions on various religions at a specially constructed house of worship, Ibadat Khana, and founded a new religion Din-e-ilahi combining the basic tenets of all major religions.
However, the modern period witnessed large-scale polarisation on communal grounds, especially after the religion came to be used as a tool for political mobilisation. Britishers, alarmed by the unity between Hindus and Muslims witnessed during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, started pitting one community against the other as part of their policy of divide and rule. Barring the non-cooperation movement led by Gandhi, which witnessed a large-scale unity between both the major communities, no other movement saw the two major religions coming together whole-heartedly. The entry of right wing organisations like Muslim League in 1906 and RSS in 1925 into the political scene further vitiated communal harmony in the country, culminating in the bloody partition of India in 1947.
Article 51A(e) of our Constitution makes it clear that it is the fundamental duty of every citizen to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities. So, the onus of maintaining communal harmony in the country lies on the citizens also. It is unfair to criticise the current government for all acts of intolerance because such acts have occurred even before. People need to be educated about our glorious past where a multitude of views existed simultaneously and only an enlightened people can thwart the breakdown of India's secular values.
By:Dr N Ratan Prasad Reddy
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