Tolerance - the bedrock of the idea "India"

The Sahithya Akademi has finally acceded to the demands of the writers, that a resolution to be passed against the attack on rationalism. But this has happened following many writers returning their awards pestering the academy to break its silence on the ongoing assault on tolerance, the right to ‘dissent’ and killing of rationalist M.M.Kalburgi. The actual reason for the recent outburst is a series of events since the new government under the leadership of the honorable PM Narendra Modi came to power.

A pattern is seen emerging if one skims through the events which has occupied the headlines in the last one year. It starts from the honorable PM himself reluctant to extend his wishes for all festivals setting aside his bias. The events of ‘reconversion’ of people back into the fold of Hinduism by VHP termed ‘ghar wapsi’ through material means was widely publicized in the media. The irresponsible statements made by few legislators ranged from calling for Hindu women to have more children to the recent statement by Gen(retd) V K Singh who said that, the central government cannot be responsible if someone throws a stone at a dog.

Heads of government organizations have been replaced with people who subscribe to the principles of the political party which is in power. The most publicized event was the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the head of the Film Institute. The event which has assumed the most significance is the increasing usage of ‘cow’ as a political animal which resulted in a pre-mediated attack on a family in Dadri on the allegation of consuming beef which resulted in the death of one person.

These events are only a few among many. All these events are being brushed aside by the government saying that it cannot be held responsible and that these events are being blown out of proportion. With ‘law and order’ being the responsibility of the State, the centre uses this as an alibi to sweep the concerns under the mat. But one does notice a significant pattern emerging. The purpose of all such incidents is to spread the ideals of the right wing RSS to which the ruling BJP is affiliated to.

Attempts by governments to spread their ideologies are nothing new. It is a constant tussle between the left and the right wings when they assume power. But the recent ones are unique and need a reservation because it has impacted the psychology of the common man. Though all the events seem isolated a careful observation will not deny the existence of the underlying pattern. This pattern, in the long run, will be detrimental to the idea of India. To understand this further, we need to look at the modern concept of ‘nation’.

‘Nation’ is a very modern concept which originated 150 years ago. It manifested itself post World War (WW) II and has since then been in constant evolution. Most of the nations which originated after WW II were artificial nations since in many cases they didn’t satisfy the most important criteria of pre-WW II states – sharing a common language, ethnicity, religion and so on.

India by itself was an unnatural nation when it was constituted in the year 1947 following a painful freedom struggle. But the Indian diversity is so complex that it can be rivaled by only by the continents of Europe and Africa as a whole. India is a land divided by so many factors like race, religion, language, caste, customs etc. Yet it has remained relatively peaceful compared to many post world war nations which have very less diversity compared to India.

The primary reason for India evolving a unique identity for itself in spite of such diversity is a character of the land which we live on – Tolerance.  Starting from the Aryan invasion Before Christ to the British invasion in the modern era the land has accepted all the ideas and assimilated it to a single idea giving it originality which we proudly proclaim ‘Indian’.

The idea of ‘Hindutva’ rivals the idea of India. ‘Hindutva’ proclaims that India belongs only to a specific section of people and is built on the ‘false’ foundation that a nation needs a common religion, language and most importantly a holy ‘cow’ for enriching nationalism. This is ‘false’ since through the passage of time in spite of the religion or the language to which the ruling king has given patronage people in  India cutting across religion and language have always lived embracing each other as brothers.

Nations which have tried to impose such ‘false’ notions have miserably failed, the best example being our brother Pakistan. It was found on the false notion that people belonging to difference religion cannot coexist. And today by following years of hatred it is still struggling to find its mark in the international arena while we aspire to lead the world in the near future. The idea of ‘Hindutva’ is no different and will lead us to the same doom as our neighbor Pakistan.

Another prominent feature of the government in power is its action of gagging NGOs, activists, etc. who have an opinion against the policies of the government. The right to dissent is a fundamental foundation of democracy without which the aims and aspirations of the minorities could never be heard. Jingoism will never serve the purpose of the needy in the democracy. All this comes to the silence of the honorable PM. The honorable PM might endorse any ideology of his choice, but his governance ought to be based on the ideals enshrined in the constitution which our founding fathers have drafted following years of deliberation and discussion. 

The idea of ‘India’ fails without the fundamental principle on which it is found – Tolerance.