Tolerating tolerance

The sentiment attached to the expression Mother Earth seems to have got fractured in today’s society lost in the humdrum of life, mistakenly perceived as development, in the wake of unabated vandalising all that the past generations have bequeathed in the form of rivers, greenery, lakes, fertile land and also hills as well as mountains, not to forget the rich stock of flora ad fauna. Pace of life appears to cloud the pace of development at the cost of earth’s gifts and to their peril. All this, unarguably, is the result of the hapless sections of populations in virtually all nooks and corners of the planet tolerating the overdone development in the mistaken notion of development. Tolerance, as a virtue prescribed by the land’s savants of the distant past seems to be the undoing of the civilised sections of society falling prey to the despots in the country’s, nay the world’s ruling classes. In a mockery of the time-honoured saying victory of good over evil, that we heard during the just celebrated festival Navaratri, we are speechless witnesses to its opposite, given the overwhelming clout of the evil elements in the land over the masses. The reticent behaviour of the majority is inappropriately dubbed as tolerance.

Public speakers of all hues take fascination to glorify India as a country of unity in diversity, highlighting the noble nature of its diaspora marked by tolerance for the faith and lingo of the masses. Many would unhesitatingly question the reality of their verdict, given the reports of clashes triggered by trivialities. When it comes to bigger issues, one has to only read the reports in dailies.

The misdemeanour committed by the land’s people identifying themselves in multiple ways, particularly the faith they follow, the language they speak, the region they live in, the attire they wear, the trades they practice, the jobs they do for livelihood and so on may result in law suits landing in the land’s Courts, but tolerating the number of those suits unheard by the judges and undecided by them, reportedly exceeding three crore, appears to be well past the limits of tolerance. The behaviour of fellow-citizens, particularly fouling up living spaces, indulging in graft, not giving up use of single-use plastic products, answering nature’s call on roadsides, speaking loudly and hurtingly using indecent words, sulking at workplace and what have you, amply testifies the national character of Indians as tolerating tolerance as it were.

By way of arresting the possible confusion or contradictions in the foregoing paragraphs, it may be required to make a reference here to the issue of intolerance on various counts, including the policies and programmes of Governments. The choice between tolerating tolerance and intolerance per se is left to the readers, as the consequences are not hard to visualise.