One word that dominated the year 2015 was ‘intolerance’. It was part of national headlines in all newspapers and television channels. It was trending on social media and it was even a topic of debate in the Parliament. Our democracy, in the last 70 years, has been built on the idea that a nation may celebrate differences of caste, creed, conviction, colour, culture, cuisine, costume and custom, and still rally around a democratic consensus.

 

A nation being intolerant does not mean that the citizens will be protesting against anything or everything. On the other hand it means that we the citizens of India will no longer be sitting and watch wrong things happening in a believe that the government will look after everything. Yes, we are now more aware of the things happening around and we the citizens being more educated & aware have an opinion over various things.

 

And if being aware and presenting an opinion on things out of right to speech and right to express, yes my nation is intolerant, if protesting against wrong is intolerance yes my nation is intolerant.

India as a nation has had its instances of religious intolerance for as long as it has existed as a historic and political entity. Right from the Direct Action Day that turned Calcutta into a stage of bloodbath and gore before the Independence, Indira Gandhi being murdered by her own bodyguards for religious reasons and the resultant backlash that Sikhs suffered afterwards, but these instances of intolerance are more a result of misuse of power and lack of education. Many artistes and writers in the country have been raising the issue of growing intolerance in the country.

 

The story of Dadri lynching is the next alledged example of growing intolerance in India. The story not made popular by the press suggests that the lynched Muslim stole a cow from the stables of another person. This surfaced after a Muslim man in Dadri was killed over rumours of having consumed beef. Many of these writers and artistes have returned their state awards as a show of dissent.

The things like- every citizen now being expected to contribute to India’s growth,  more autonomy to media, youth participation especially in politics and emergence of NGOs have somewhere contributed that we have learnt to say ‘no’.

 

Highlighting the recent case, when the Shahitya Academy Award winners started retuning their awards because of the misbehavior with one of their colleagues where they explained this act of their as a protest against intolerance, completely showed double standards. If they are against intolerance, by returning awards aren’t they also showing their intolerance?  

 

Intolerance literally refers to a situation when a person does not agree with others view and believes. When Mr. Aamir Khan made a statement that his wife believes that India is no more a safe place to live, people protested against him saying that how can Aamir Khan call India an intolerant country, but by protesting against this believe of Aamir Khan or his wife, these people are themselves proving that India is an intolerant country.

 

To be on an obvious part, India being a nation of great diversity with respect to religion, language and culture, there will surely be clashes of views and thoughts and we argue with those only who we believe will listen us and give preference to our views. To make all social issues a political one is absolutely wrong. We have to work together to make a stronger and richer India and only then intolerance cease to exist. 

 

Shubham Goel

BMS, 1st Year

KMV, DU