The Intolerance Point

The country – if few political parties, historians, writers, film makers and section of people are to be believed, is in a siege of intolerance. This makes for good debate, television hours, newspaper and social media space.

Taking sides in the debate – now labels the person as pro-NDA, or pro-non-NDA.

How much people agree with this debate, or point of view that India has become intolerant or, the Govt. with PM Modi as its chief identity is the perpetrator – is a different paradox.

Now how do I as an Indian citizen measure – Intolerance, who do I blame and how much it helps to address this concern?

Let’s address these issues with some real life context.

Intolerance – without getting mired into political definitions – is manifested as rejection, or resistance to a difference of belief, opinion, or action. It can range from a parent-child conflict in a family, to a government-citizen context, and take a victim-aggressor interpretation at a different level of seriousness or, exaggeration.

At a simplistic level – a child may call his parents intolerant to his definition of freedom and fun; the same child grows to be adult and parents claim victim to an intolerant offspring who rejects or, dilutes their tradition, custom and values.

Now, let’s evaluate our society – multicultural, multilingual, segmented on income disparity, rural-urban, believers, religious, atheists, leftists, right-leaning et al. The division lines in our society are deep – and let’s accept it. For a citizen of India – being exposed to these division lines is an absolute fact of life, and it goes back hundreds and perhaps thousands of years.

Now, in this heterogeneous society – that has such diversity and complexity of customs and expectations, to expect absolute tolerance – to my mind, is fundamentally impossible, or our Government makes a North Korea out of India. Hence, the second best option is to have a “reasonable” level of tolerance – that will always have some amount of judgment, and potential indiscretion.

The makers of our Constitution, irrespective of the political inclination – must have faced this real challenge. So, enshrined in our Constitution is a certain set of Fundamental Rights – that is available to me as a matter of birthright.

As a measure of Intolerance –

-          What part, or percentage of my fundamental rights is being subjugated by the State, or a set of individuals; to redress do I see dysfunctional judiciary or, muffled media?

-          Stepping aside – how much of my multicultural society is subject to restrictive and discriminatory policies and actions that undermine their pursuit of Fundamental Rights?

No matter the volume of concern – I don’t see any real, new or, persistent violation, or danger to both of the above. 

Assuming for a moment – that the Intolerance point is real, who do I blame?

None; not even politicians and so called thought leaders or, religious heads. By putting blame, I validate the propaganda around me, and take a side that is not entirely my stand.

How do I address?

For me the concept of intolerance is as strong and as healthy as a difference of opinion, faith, religion, state, color - which I accept as a reality of India’s history, geography and not entirely unique to India.

It is in some ways generic and vulnerable to situations in democratic and authoritarian societies, of human story for power, of being victim and to also cry victim.

As I stated earlier –the character of Indian life is multicultural and it is humanly impossible for any citizen to fully reconcile with the views and beliefs of other.

The external influence, propaganda – political, or with whatever agenda along the division lines, is unlikely to go away in the near term, and will continue to make dents, temporarily weaken and create enough dust.

The notion of India, and tolerance.

Human history is rife with periods of stability, peace, dissent and turmoil. Putting blame on Government, or, opposition, on right-wing, left-wing – does not absolve us.

By living in the reality that we need neighbors, that parent-child conflict is in itself a nature of life and that we are born in a diverse and unique country – our conviction should not be shaken, or require validation. 

In a significant way – that will discard the rhetoric and propaganda; base our personal views in accepting our differences and this is where tolerance is rooted.

Returning awards, staging marches or, vehemently defending are great tokenism – without a purpose.