Evidence of Tolerance: Clashes Are Rare
Letter from India, The International Herald Tribune PONDICHERRY, INDIA My last column — on India’s tradition of tolerance, which I discussed in the context of European difficulties with Islamic immigration — received an unusual amount of feedback. Several readers agreed with the points I was making. But many also objected to, or at least […]
Upholding a Tradition of Tolerance
Letter from India, The International Herald Tribune
It’s true that I live in an especially tolerant part of India, but I think it’s fair to say that India is an especially tolerant country. The Hindu teacher and mystic Vivekananda once said that pluralism was the “backbone of our national existence,” and that India stood for the “grand idea of universal toleration.” He was echoing a widely held view of India as a country particularly receptive to difference, capable of absorbing a multitude of faiths and cultures into its own society.
For all its troubles, Nehruvian secularism is still the guiding principle of Indian political life. Its concept of equidistance among faiths, of state indifference rather than hostility to religion, is more benign (and tolerant) than European-style secularism, which positions itself aggressively against religion.