Why have we become so intolerant of the term intolerance? Crisscrossing through multiple literary festivals in the last few weeks, it couldn’t be helped but get noticed the dexterity with which we have adopted a wide range of alternative vocabulary to convey the many facets of this now controversial concept –whilst using the terms like over sensitivity, a culture of conformity, or unfreedoms. We treat the term intolerance as if it’s the new smut on the block, like a tyrannical neologism, even though we can’t deny the fact that there have been and continue to be, multimillion topics and infinite number of trends where the flavor of intolerance could be tasted very well in INDIA, not just religious, caste-based, about women’s equality, the rights of children, of the lower un or underprivileged group the dalits (Schedule Castes) and other marginalized community, of homosexuality and the list continues…
Therefore I find it baffling that the word intolerance which denotes a lapse from the most universal, humanist principle of equal respect for all, has now become a key word for decoding political allegiances. More and more, any acknowledgement of the existence of the word intolerance in INDIA is identified primarily as the view of the leftist intelligentsia.
to be continued…