Bigotry in the form of religion, caste,
creed, color and gender is the debilitating poison that has eaten away our
society over a prolonged period, perforating the foundation of social
structures across different parts of world.
The very basic right of leading a life with minimum dignity has been denied on
the basis of these human created differences.
The framework of division of work specified in old systems, which never
espoused the theory of untouchables and intolerance, started decaying almost
simultaneously in almost all countries and societies during the middle ages
(around from 10th to 16th
century) – marked as the black
age. It does continue till today in many parts of India and world in some form
or other.
With the breakdown of colonial rules
in the west, there has been a significant change to consider a human as a person
before anything – tolerance and respect for individual self being of utmost
importance. It pains us to see that till today a few self-styled god men consider
themselves more equal than others and mark
fellow people as sinners creating smokescreens obscuring the truth and dictating
terms of how should they change their beliefs and/or their destiny. These have turned
into ugly wars and battles to satisfy the interest of few with huge collateral
damages of loss of common human lives for no fault of theirs.
For our society to prosper and for
peace to prevail on earth, we need to be more tolerant than yesterday and there
can’t be any kind of society-created classification other than natural ones. Instead of trying to advocate that one way is
better than others, there is an urgent need to adopt “ So many opinions, that
many paths”, as propounded by real wise men like Sri Ramakrishna. Peace and harmony and not intolerance and acrimony
need to be the first steps towards the future.
