The intolerance debate suddenly sprouted into the public domain when Amir Khan in an interview quoted his wife suggesting to leave the country amidst the lynching of Akhlaq and award wapsi protests. It was year 2015 and in the past 70 years several such lynchings had occured before and the newly elected regime had recently completed it’s 1 year in power. Ironically, it hadn’t been long since the same intolerant Hindu society had 6 months back bestowed Amir his biggest blockbuster hit PK in which every single ritual of the Hindus was criticised, made fun of and bashed left, right and centre.
Intolerance was a word which before the debates surfaced, I had heard in the context of food products alone. At first, it was bit of a shocker to watch the whole Hindu community being assesed and evaluated with the same word used to evaluate a food disorder such as lactose intolerance. Definitely it took it’s own sweet time for my mind to assimilate the brand new addition to my vocabulary, but soon I got used to it.
To understand Hindu Intolerance and for the sake of gratification let us first understand what actually Lactose Intolerance means? It simply refers to a body condition where our stomach is unable to digest lactose due to the deficiency of right enzymes. It is pretty easy to superimpose this definition upon Hindus as a community. Hindu Intolerance refers to a condition where due the deficiency of right values the Hindus are not able to assimilate Muslims in their society.
The question that arises is that how far does this claim hold true? Because as far as I can remember let alone some another religion, I grew up respecting the several Gods in my own home who were worshipped by different members of my family. But, just a minute, am I not supposed to use the words “I tolerated”?
Actually no, because it is utter nonsensical for someone brought up as Hindu to tolerate, when it comes to other people’s faiths. We intrinsically know and are rather hardwired to respect them. But, at the same time, we commit a blunder, the blunder to expect this respect to be mutual. Because article 25 of the Constitution gives them the freedom to practice their faith and somehow, those who practice it religiously, don’t feel obligated to revert back that repect we expect.
I must confess that initially I wondered why couldn’t the intellectuals come up with something better to assess our society rather than using a word which is characteristic to defining food disorders. Why couldn’t they simply come up with something more sensible like, “Hindu Society lacking mutual respect.”? If you, somehow had the same question sprouting in your mind all this while, I hope, just like me, you must have come to terms with the solution. It’s the same solution Asaddudin Owaisi has been yelling in your heads from TV debates until now. It’s high time we start respecting their right to practice their faith while they disrespect ours as it is their Constitutional Right. So when they say fuck hindutva, or they write khilafat 2.0, or hindu bharat chhodo, we just got to say it out loud, “Nara e taqbir: Allah hu Akabr!“, just so you don’t end up being intolerant.
