Let’s Accept, Not ‘Tolerate’

Religious tolerance is a fashionable term in secular societies, but is it a positive term? Though synonymous in India with recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others, the Collins English Dictionary describes tolerance as the capacity to endure something, especially pain or hardship. In Life Sciences, the term denotes an organism’s capacity to endure the effects of a poison or other substance, particularly after it has been taken over a prolonged period. In Hindi or Urdu, to tolerate means “bardasht karna,” which has an extremely negative connotation.

Thus, in essence, tolerance is a compromise, the ability to ‘put up with’ something. Now the question is, are we “tolerating” our neighbours, classmates, colleagues, superiors, subordinates, teachers, students and countrymen who practice a different faith?

When you tolerate someone, you don’t make any effort to understand him or appreciate what he or she says, does or believes in. Tolerance creates a barrier, which in turn leads to ignorance about one another. You live in your world, I live in mine and we both tolerate each other.

There are believers in some faiths and sects who insist that theirs is the only path to salvation, which leads them to regard other belief systems as false. Often, terms such as kafir, heathen, pagan and idolator are used to describe followers of other faiths.

Forced to live in a secular society, such followers “tolerate” adherents of other religions instead of trying to understand or appreciate what the others believe in.

Rejecting the division of mankind into various categories and emphasizing the universality of all men, Kaniyan Poongunranar, the influential Tamil philosopher from the Sangam age, had said, “I am a world citizen and every citizen is my own kith and kin”.

The need of the hour is a paradigm shift in thinking from the now prevailing notion of tolerance of other faiths to the ideal of acceptance of all faiths as valid and sacred to achieve peace and harmony. Such reorientation of thinking will promote positive complementarity among faiths and cultures, rather than reluctant and condescending tolerance of each other.

The author is the director of the Global Foundation for Civilizational Harmony (India)