TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE !

Kshama badan ko chahiye, chhotan ko utpaat,

Ka "Vishnu" Ka ghat gayo, "Bhrigu" Jo maari laat |

(Let Elders give pardon and let Youngsters commit sin,

No harm was done to "Vishnu" when "Bhrigu" kicked Him.)

     "Elders" does not only mean age but it also implies thoughts, knowledge and learning. It includes men of vision and philosophy. Who do you attribute this verse to? English Media, half -read honchos, kindly pardon me because it would fly over your heads like supersonic F-16 jets. But if some of you have read Hindi Literature, then most of you would jump up and say, "Kabir". Yes, you are right. But who was Kabir? Well! Kabir was a Muslim , belonging to "Weavers" community. What was he, a Muslim, saying by quoting from so called "Hindu" scriptures? Definitely, he was giving us an important lesson in "tolerance". Please note that he existed almost 500 years back during the medieval period of Indian History.

    The issue is not of really of Intolerance but of FABRICATED concept of "Hindu Majority" and imported concept of Secularism to fight this fabricated myth of Hindu Majority. So, the battle lines were drawn right at the birth of this country, when "Two Nation" theory was accepted by Congress, against the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi. At the heart of this problem was exclusion of Muslims from the overall gamut of a modern word "Indian". In other words, the definition of a 'Hindu of Hindustan', should have been at par with the word "Indian" and inclusive of a Muslim, a Sikh, a Budhist etc and not open a can of worm by calling Hinduism a separate religion as Two Nation theory stated. While "Two Nation Theory' incorporated, Sikhs, Budhists, Jains, Parsis, Jews, Jats, Rajputs, Brahmins, Dalits and Kayasths, all, with their different rituals and processes in the lap of Hinduism, it excluded Muslims. This was a faulty thought and out of tune with the stratagem of a multicultural society. This seeded the Intolerance, we see today. 

     To practice tolerance is to be "magnanimous", big hearted person! This is what Kabir had spelt out. You have to accept the sins and wrong- doings of those who are narrow minded and lack the ability to think on the broader prospects of society. Magnanimity is to end conflict and confrontation by showing a big pardoning heart and not to widen its scope by making it look unpardonable. When one questions the sin of others, you become unforgiving and intolerant. If you do so, you have committed the same sin. Swami Dayananad Saraswati had preached that hate not the sinner but the sin. By being big hearted person, you make the sinner feel small. In so doing , you attack the sin. My question to all these actors, writers, poets and intellectuals returning awards on account of intolerance shown by a handful few towards Pakistani singers/ Authors or beef eaters is : Aren't you showing smallness of your mind by being intolerant towards a handful few? Definitely, you are. In fact, you are dividing the society by your narrow mindedness and impulsive act. It seems your opposition is politically orchestrated rather than being genuine.

     If it was genuine, then you should start a nation wide movement against this and convince people, why they should accept Pakistani singers/ authors/ actors even if Pakistan was committing gory acts on the borders. You have to convince the Indian masses and NOT a political party. But you have done is to attack a political ideology rather than the sin which needed to be addressed. You have to make the society understand that eating beef was permitted in a religion, so it was not to be questioned. You have to explain by giving examples such as that Kashmiri pundits still relish Halal meat. Please inform the North India's, so called "Hindu society", that in Karnataka and certain other parts of South India, marriage amongst cousins was NOT a taboo. It was NOT an exclusive Muslim practice alone.

     Tragedy is 40% Indians are illiterate and 70 % do not know the culture and traditions of people living in regions 100 Kms away. This is being exploited by nasty politicians over the last 68 years. In south India, such a barrier has been created over language by politicians that speaking in Hindi was a sin. It is considered imposition of North Indian Culture but speaking in English is relished as if it was a home made "Masala Dosa".

     Religious intolerance to political intolerance is because of successive congress led governments of India to create caste, creed and religious barriers in the society to raise its vote bank. It treated word HINDU as a religious commodity and packaged it as such to further divide the society into Majority and Minority. India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru , educated in western philosophy and thoughts created this myth when he talked of Secularism of the West. He did not understand that the word HINDU was more secular than Western Secularism. He did not understand if Indians live in India; it is the same thing to say that Hindus lived in Hindustan. This would have demolished all notions of Majority and Minorities.

     Hindu Majority is a definite Myth in India. All castes, sub castes, temporal sects have been grouped under this but who have their own Gods and temporal rituals. There are God men who follow their own procedures and processes. Each god man has his own cult and devotees, whether it was Guru Ma, Radhe Ma, Sudhanshu Maharaj or Rajinder Singh JI of Vyas or Nirankaris and many more such sects. They follow their own rituals and religious practices. They are all self containing temporal sects such as Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews and Muslims of India. If they were Indians of India , they were also Hindus of Hindustan. Nehru's Western education did not accept this and he created this fictitious Hindu Majority by accepting such organizations as Arya Maha Sabha, who preached this non existing majority. Thereafter organizations like Rashtriya Sayam Sangh(RSS), Vishv Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal sprang up to give reality to such a non existing majority. Sixty eight years of this practice has fully divided the society, which the so called Intellectuals of today, are trying to further widen the chasm by harping about "Hindu Intolerance".

     Shiv Sena is a minuscule organization, centered in Maharashtra, amongst a population of 1250 millions Indians. But these intellectuals are making Shiv Sena look like a larger than life organization and thus giving it a unwanted publicity by returning their awards. I feel ashamed in calling them intellectuals, who do not even understand that Shiv Sena represented not even two percent of Indian population. Either they did not deserve these awards or they do not understand the simple arithmetic of the myth of Hindu Majority. They are fooling themselves by reacting to incidents designed to provoke them and make Shiv Sena a house hold name in India. Such a stupidity would sure further create a chasm of unbridgeable dimensions in the Indian Society. They are victim of their own intolerance.