Fifty shades of intolerance

Fifty shades of intolerance

 

Too bad if you don’t like something, you can’t let go of civil behaviour
One of the most misunderstood, out of control and inconclusive debates we have had in recent times is that on tolerance in India. A section of people are concerned, many have returned awards, made statements in the media and cited specific incidents including the Dadri killing and Kalburgi murder. Others feel India is a tolerant place.

The fact is we can freely discuss rising intolerance, or attack the government for it. That a billion plus Indians with tremendous differences in culture go about their lives on a daily basis shows that we are in fact, a tolerant country.
Both sides in the debate make their point vehemently, unwilling to listen to the other side. This alone is a kind of intolerance.
The questions remain though. Is India tolerant or intolerant? Can we be tolerant enough to say both the statements are true at the same time?
The confusion comes from the question itself. There is no one kind of tolerance. There can be religious intolerance, caste intolerance, economic inequality intolerance, intolerance of internet trolls, political intolerance, traffic intolerance, and alternate opinion intolerance.

The fact that we blare horns in traffic shows clearly who we are as a society (all developed and most Asian countries don’t have people blaring horns). If you have a Twitter account then the crude, insensitive comments that rule Twitter clearly suggest we are unwilling to treat differing opinions with dignity.

At the same time, it is unfair to suggest we are all intolerant.
Many Indians do not blare horns (a few idiots are enough to make the road noisy). Most people on Twitter have a positive attitude. The same goes for religious intolerance. Most Indians may not love every religion, but they are happy to co-exist with it.

Should we label such a society ‘intolerant’? Or should we blindly defend it as tolerant despite knowing that unsavoury things are happening? Or should we simply call it a real society where all shades exist, and that could work on being better? It is funny how none of the sides in the debate want to come to a real conclusion.

How do we make India more tolerant? For this it is important to understand the psychology of tolerance and keep it independent of politics as much as possible. The dictionary defines tolerance as “the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with.”