When a child is born, all that can be seen and felt by the soul is love. It is the act of love that embraces the child’s heart and makes them comfortable with the family. In light of this love, we as human beings do not discriminate when it comes to love.
Recently, an advertisement that flashed on our TV screens, which created a thunderstorm across the country, was on interfaith love. It was a jewellery ad by Tanishq that intended to highlight the ideology of unity amongst people.
However, the ad was subjected to massive outrage and it had to be pulled down. On the one hand, it tried to show the idea of unity and love between different religions. But, it was also taken as an insult by some people, who considered it an act of ‘love jihad‘, which supposedly hurt their sentiments.
With the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976, the Preamble to the Constitution asserted that India is a secular nation. “Our Constitution doesn’t merely acquire its secular idea from just the words in the Preamble, but holds its strength from the combination of many provisions, specifically the fundamental rights that it guarantees to its people of the country,” writes Suhrith Parthasarathy.
The collective hate that the advertisement was subjected to makes one wonder if we are truly secular as a nation, also provided it is 2020 now. Harmony and peace are two words that have always resonated with and across India. The idea to promote fear within the hearts of the people, through violence and trolling, only results in demeaning the spirit of our country and of the Constitution.
Love encompasses all humans, there is no discrimination in it. To be a collective entity of harmony and peace, it is imperative that individuals remove the resentment and anger from their hearts against any religion. Religion should be based on universal humanity. The human consciousness needs to become more aware of its thoughts and actions. With the terrifying response that Tanishq received, we are, in a way, less tolerant and more ‘backwards’ in our thinking.
The idea of global consciousness and connectedness needs to encompass every country’s heart, to be able to move forward towards sustainable development goals. Such instances only cultivate agony, fear, and threats to the bright minds of the nation. In a way, the ad has compelled each one of us to look inwards and unlearn so many things about ourselves as individuals and become a better human being at heart.
This act of intolerance should be taken as a springboard, to transform ourselves as individuals and be more sensitive and compassionate towards each other.