Indian society

Spirit of tolerance and love in Indian society can be defined as that harmony and assimilation which can be observed among the diverse communities of the country. This spirit can clearly be seen in the ancient world where king Ashoka renounced all violence and war, and took to preaching Dhamma, the special religion of love and peace.

Then we can see that continuously throughout history, India has been home to people as diverse as the Hunas, Parthians, Greeks, Scythians, Turks and later on the Mughals. Though some of them may have come to the country as invaders, they did not or rather could not, see India as an enemy. The result has been a tremendous assimilation or races, languages and cultures - a process that is continuing still. In fact, something similar had already taken place a thousand years earlier when the Aryan-speaking people had migrated into the country, forever shaping the destiny of the country and its post-Harappan people. It was in this spirit of tolerance and love, that perhaps was created some of the world’s most majestic works of art (eg. the Taj Mahal), the most original of interpretations on the meaning and philosophy of life (eg. the Upanishads), and created the most simple and honest forms of devotion to the almighty (eg. Bhakti and Sufism).

Thankfully, due to the presence of this spirit in our society so far we have been able to reflect rationally and peacefully to most of the problems that we are currently facing. Then on the global front, India exerts on citizens of this world a great unifying force. This is in the form of non-violence (Ahimsa), peaceful co-existence (NAM); in pledging protection to the global commons (Paris Climate Pact), to the rights of man (democracy, human rights), and to universal nuclear disarmament etc. If one day India has to shine in the comity of nations, if Indians have to truly get involved in the making of a better world, and if someday we have to get rid of tragic things like poverty, pollution, crime and terrorism etc, we will have to share this spirit of love and tolerance and spread it to all human societies across the world.

Religiousness/religiosity is the quality of being religious, pious and devout. In other words it is known as having strong religious feeling or belief.

Through the ages India society has been spiritual and religious and its Indian connotation Dharma has been the guiding force of Indian civilization by setting the standards for personal and social life.

However communalism is a negative connotation which indicates political trade in religion. It is an ideology on which communal politics is based and consists of three elements:

• A belief that people of same religion have common secular interests i.e. they have same political, economic and social interests. So, they can be segregated as a distinct socio-political community.
  
• It indicates that in a multi-religious society like India, the common secular interests of one religion are dissimilar and divergent from the interests of another religion.
  
• The interests of the follower of the different religion or of different ‘communities’ are seen to be completely incompatible, antagonist and hostile.
  

In independent India the Ayodhya issue where construction of a temple or masjid has been constantly evoked to reap political mileage in a country where deep religious sentiments of different communities are attached. Year after year and election after election this issue has been evoked to polarize the communities on religious line for electoral gain at the cost of delicate social fabric of a multi-religious and multicultural India.