Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak,
Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Well, I think it is not the nation that should be labeled as tolerant or intolerant, it should be the people living in it. My personal notion is that India is one of the most tolerant countries in the world and it has been so for thousands of years.
Now, whenever we talk about intolerance in India, why do we constantly correlate it to religious discrimination?
India is a secular country; I will be stating some facts to prove my point:
- Many Bollywood celebrities who have been in the industry for the past 20-25 years and occupied top positions are Muslims. They’re admired by more than one billion Hindus and other minority communities.
- The most special and admiring person of all Indians was and is former President of India and tremendous scientist Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. He is a Muslim and I do not think he has even a single hater in the country.
- Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy and was the President of the longest-serving politicl party of India, the Congress party. She is merrily recognised by the entire party without any hostility.
- Dr BR Ambedkar, one of the architects of the Indian Constitution, was a Buddhist.
- The first female judge of the Supreme Court, Fathima Beevi, was a Muslim.
- Oh, and Amit Shah, our Home Minister? He is a Jain.
Now tell me is India religiously biased?
We cannot judge the whole nation based on some people, right?
For instance, when Aamir Khan gave a statement in 2015 that his wife does not feel safe in India and has thought about moving out of India. However, he did not say that his wife had spoken of insecurity because of religious intolerance. Her insecurity most possibly was because of how fringe components of the nation were sometimes acting as a danger to them.
He certainly cited that he felt unhappy hearing such comments from his wife as he is a proud Indian. Now here enters the intolerance policy. Instead of accepting his opinion, we accused him of being a traitor just because he is a Khan? There are many more such examples where those fringe elements of society have painted a bad impression of the whole nation.
I, being an aware youth, would just like to say that we should be kind to each other and bring some optimistic change in society, especially at this time. If India really wants to remain democratic, then we have to enable constructive criticism to be raised by citizens, as they will enable our nation evolve.
It is just that a few people require to accept the neutral, unbiased stand. Then this argument will be very restricted.
I am a proud Indian.
I want to live here; I want to die here.
Jai Hind!