I always believed that there was a right and a wrong, a good and a bad, a strong and a weak. When I’d see women, who would rather paint their nails than play basketball, I’d scorn at them, thinking I was better somehow; when I’d see some of my classmates sitting by themselves while the rest of us were talking and singing, I’d force them to join us, thinking I was helping them somehow. But then I saw women with painted nails, disengaged from the ‘life of the party’ judge me for being too loud. It was hard for me to look at it that way. I had always had this belief that a princess sewing is weaker than the one with the sword and where the quiet girl transforms into the one partying the most. Then, I dug deeper. Did you know that in October 2015, 12 film-makers returned their national awards to protest “growing intolerance in the country”. Earlier, 41 novelists, essayists, playwrights, and poets had returned awards received from India’s prestigious National Academy of Letters, angered that the academy had largely remained silent on the murder of well-known rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and Malleshappa Kalburgi by unidentified assailants. Protests to ban Padmaavat, lynching those who ate beef, mayhem in the Barabati stadium in Cuttack during Twenty20; all because people couldn’t tolerate a belief or an action that differed from their idea of right. I understand that we all had certain values growing up that are now deeply rooted in us; and I understand that finding someone not practicing the same ones can be surprising, or even difficult to accept. However, tolerance simply asks us not to approach our differences negatively. Basically, a fancier term for MYOB-minding your own business. I do think it’s wonderful to strongly believe in something, but there is a really thin line between having strong opinions and thinking that only your opinion is right, which are both acceptable because they cause no harm to others. But then there’s a whole other area where people will force everyone to accept their opinion, by assaulting them, making it the only area against which I recommend strong intolerance. I believe we as a society just want to preserve our ideas and culture and religion. And some of us start imposing it on everyone thinking that it is the best way of preservation somehow. I hope we all start feeling secure enough to mind our own businesses soon. Maybe then I will not puke when I see the news.
Anushi Arora
1st year
B.Com (H)
Kommentarer