Is India really becoming intolerant? To discuss this topic, I first want to explain the meaning of the word ‘intolerant’. It means not to tolerate the views, behavior and beliefs that differ from your own one’s. Intolerance arrives when one person’s thoughts do not match with the other’s one or when things don't go the way you want them to be. Looking at the topic, I will try to see whether India is really becoming intolerant, or it’s just the image of it being shown to us? I will see both aspects of it. And if India is becoming intolerant, then what does it refer to i.e. whole India, any community etc. I will try to find out reasons behind it using proper examples.
How We Can Say that India Is Becoming Intolerant
First, I want to consider an example of farmers protesting against farm laws in Punjab and Haryana. Due to the abolishment of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee under the farmer bill, the farmers are protesting on road today. Under the bill, the MSP (minimum selling price) has vanished. According to the government, this bill is for the betterment of farmers but farmers see it as a major loss. If farmers don't want the bill, then why does the government want to impose their rules on farmers? And no media coverage works as fuel to fire in this case. What is the reason? Is this a political stunt? I don’t know about that but one thing I know is that imposing rules on farmers leads to their intolerance.
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Others can be the issue of crimes against women in India. According to data published by Statista, there is no downfall in crimes against women. Nobody wants to live in a state where women are not safe. Women are not able to walk freely on roads after 10 pm in many parts of the country. As we see in Nirbhaya rape and murder case, the convicts were hanged after 7 long years. It is true that to provide justice it will take time but this long time can lead to intolerance.
Politics is the other main reason to say that India is becoming intolerant. Many political parties see people as a vote bank. Setting rules that benefit the majority always helps them in elections creating intolerance among minority groups. Migrants were provided with no help to travel during the time of pandemic. On 12 December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed, under which citizenship is granted on the basis of religion for the first time. This led to many protests at that time.
These were some but there are many more issues that lead to intolerance among Indians.
How We Can Say that India Is Not Becoming Intolerant
From the above examples, it is pretty clear that there are many issues for India to be intolerant, but there are many points to state it is not.
The first one is the role of the media. Today, political parties pressure the media to show news of their benefits. Many times we are shown the image that we are divided so that political parties are benefited. But the real image is not the same. All the religions, communities, etc. are living together for so long. To get a better idea, we can take an example of paid stone pelters in Kashmir. Once a stone pelter (Bhat) dropped his mask for conversation with an undercover reporter and was asked why he did stone pelting on soldiers. And he said that he is getting paid for that. 5000-7000 rupees per month, clothes and sometimes shoes as well. It’s his job to do stone pelting on soldiers. He doesn't care about the Kashmir issue at all. And all other sources of news showed us the complete opposite image.
Media hype everything. The reason is money and views. Panic is created by the media among the minorities and creates a sense of intolerance among them. Little intolerance and religious clashes are everywhere in the world, but an average Indian if friendly in society despite differences in religion, community etc. India is appearing to be intolerant because of the conflicts created by some political leaders for their own benefits.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, I can’t say that India is becoming intolerant. There are many issues that need to be addressed. Saying the whole nation intolerant due to these issues is not right.
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