The Tolerant Indians

A few days ago, one of my friends asked me about my views on tolerance.He said he had read about it first in "The Argumentative Indian", He told me he'll send me the book. As he still hasn't and i still haven't actually read the book , i wanted to write about it....In my answer to him i'd said,

"My take on intolerance wud not really be tolerable to many with those intolerance...Because as i said earlier, i never try to impose my thoughts on anyone..What would those so called" intolerant people" have to say or react on my views on them??And maybe my heights or limits of intolerance maybe someone else's base..I make my own perceptions and live according to them and probably wudn't change them for the world except if it was for someone i deeply cared about.."They" will be what they are..And perfectly within there rights to do it.. I might say"they" shouldn't have/must not react to Gere- Shilpa/MFH..But i think if they knew it was my point of view, they wud only sneer and be a little more intolerant towards me and some other people too..Isn't it something like asking a psycho not be one??...But again maybe intolerance in some teaches tolerance to others..because as a spectator you se the absurdity of it whole....So why try to make a point on issues i can do nothing about?? I can only talk of myself and increase my levels of tolerance... ".

But that was before a few days...before the gujjars in Rajasthan started their demands to be included in schedule, before clashes happened for the "Sacha Sauda" in Punjab, before Nandigram,Before a bomb went off in one of the largest gathering Praying in Jama Masjid in Hyderabad, before the sudden chaos that gripped our country where no state has been left in peace .....

Why did that happen??Are we really turning into an intolerant lot??Didn't the Mahtama teach us Non-Violence? Didn't he teach us the lesson of tolerance and patience..Didn't he give us the pride of calling ourselves Indians? The country he gave us just based on his war of non-violence and tolerance..Why have we forgotton the great Mahatma, who we call the father of the nation and still don't know why..Why have we forgotten the rich heritage of India..Why are we turning into such an intolerant lot?Is it the education or is it the politics??Is it the media?Is it that we don't have any good ideals in India anymore??Is it because one of the greatest presidents India has had, magnificient in his lethal combination of intelligence, compassion and humility, is sacrified because he denies playing into the hands of politicians??Is it because the UPA and Mayawati play symbiotic blackmail to save each others necks??Is it because our leader are based from jail?Why didn't the politicians do something to stop the initial act itself and nothing to stop the carnage that followed??When Pakistan was at the verge of a civil war over the CJ issue, when the begums of Bangladesh are either trying to save their lives in prison or go on an exile, when Sri Lanka is again gripped with the Tamil Guirellas declaring an open war.....I still thought maybe We'll never be touched by that..Our neighbours fights will teach us how much better it is to find solutions rather than violence....

But can we expect that from our people??...The collective role of politicians, media and education..It is getting so disillusioning..Are they not forgetting what politics is about? Is the education getting too technical??Is morality obsolete?Is media too taken up with frivolity to notice the bigger picture??What is going wrong and where? Nobody can deny that it is going wrong..

So ..what??where?? But we are not Pakistan under a military rule, We are absolutely not Bangladesh, We are not yet Sri Lanka..But the way the things are poised, people's tolerance is wearing thin and maybe, if things go on in the same vein , so would mine...

(This article was written before five months, and presently we have added many more such incedents to the list. The blasts in Hyderabad, the bombs going off every other day at different places firing communal tension..Have we then, run out of tolerance??and doesn't it make you wander if there's some propaganda somewhere to break the country which has stood the test of time and such turbulence since a long long time??

i have extreme faith in "us"..Let's start thinking afresh..and this time..let's please think of the India 50 years hence, rather than stick to our present and fighting about something as petty as religion.As the famous lines go.."Mazhab nahin sikhata, aapas mein bair rakhna".)