Human beings are not intolerant ‘by-default’

The formation of this universe dates back to millions of years, but there is no recorded history of more than 5000 years. Ever since man began to live on this planet earth, countless ideas were floating across the societies. Maybe, this is what society is all about, the mechanism of which cannot be mathematical. The very problem that we perhaps ignore is – the idea on which we want to run societies. If we superimpose our arithmetical formula of 2×2=4 – then for sure, the society will fail to run. The reason behind this is the nature of dynamism. For indeed, different societies will have their different connotations regarding various things and the matter of fact is, all are correct.

But time didn’t pass as water flows in the river, rather it welcomed generations after generations with enormous struggle and conflicting ideas. Nevertheless, societies survived one after the other.

However, they were different in their views but tolerated the ones who differed. Had it not been their tolerance, the idea of co-existence would have never continued. They realized the very fact that – UNITY doesn’t mean UNIFORMITY. 

There are five spheres on which the effect of intolerance is very profound. 

• Racist Intolerance  

Although modern biology will say that there is only one human race, and the generations after generations are linked to a single parent. However, when we talk about the word race in the context of sociology then it has a different connotation. 

Humanity is divided into five races: –

1. Negroid (Black) race.
2. Australoid (Australian Aborigine and Papuan) race.
3. Capoid (Bushmen/Hottentots) race.
4. Mongoloid (Oriental/Amerindian) race.
5. Caucasoid (White) Race.

Naturally, none of them enjoys superiority over each other. The differences in the visual traits (such as skin, colour, cranial, facial features, or types of hair) are not due to any human selection or election rather it is more due to geographical and climatic changes. But when we go through the pages of History then it will present in front of us several deadly wars due to this. Mostly, whites have been tyranted towards black – sadly which continues to this day.

Examples of ethnic conflicts: – 

1. Bosnian War
2. Insurgency in North Caucasus
3. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
4. Rwandan genocide
5. Dalit

Millions of souls departed due to wars fought between various ethnic groups belonging to different human races. But the idea of ‘co-existence’ still didn’t cease to linger. In the midst of hatred and bigotry, love overpowered the ground. And if not love, then obviously, the intellectual sect of all the communities agreed in unison that – naturally no race can enjoy any superiority over others. No black has any upper hand over white nor does white have any upper hand over a black. 

We know well, societies co-exist these days in all the continents and countries despite dissimilarities in their visual traits.

• Religious Intolerance 

According to some estimates, there are roughly 4200 religions in the world, in which a major portion comprises of man-made faiths and fabrications within a religion. The top ten religions according to their adherents in the world are followed:-

Religion                                                     Adherents                                         Percentage

1. Christianity                                         2.3 billion                                            29%
2. Islam                                                   1.9 billion                                            24%
3. Hinduism                                            1.2 billion                                            15.4%
4. Secular/Non-religious                      1.1 billion                                            14.1%
5. Buddhism                                           506 million                                          6%
6. Chinese traditional religion            394 million                                          5%
7. Ethnic religions                                  300 million                                          3%
8. African traditional religions             100 million                                          1.2%
9. Sikhism                                                23 million                                            0.29%
10. Spiritism                                              15 million                                            0.19%

After going through the data, there is a great possibility that a person might think – the world would have always been a place of war and conflict. And yes, he is not entirely wrong. The pages of history are reddened by the blood of millions of people who lost their lives while fighting for their faiths. Empires after empires lost their reigns in different parts of the world. Can anyone forget the fall of Ottomans? The fall of the Gupta Empire? The fall of the Roman Empire? Well, it’s not that easy, to be honest.

The most fortifying factor of motivating someone is his emotions. And the two most strongest emotions out of all other emotions are – love and hatred. Faith is such an emotion for which millions and billions of people have lost their lives during battles.

But one should never forget the fact that – people to this day are still living together with peace and harmony across the globe. We don’t come across segregated societies very easily. Although there are countries which can be named for any particular religion, nevertheless it doesn’t mean that there is no other faith existing in that country. People have so far learned the true meaning of faith and for the sake of that very faith, they cannot hate someone. The differences and dissimilarities in one’s belief should never manifest in such a way that he starts manipulating the other person.

• Nationalistic Intolerance 

Well, this term nationalism has been misinterpreted by almost a major section of all the societies across the world. And the only reason is the political gains of a few people, who in order to achieve their selfish gain, gambled with the emotions of millions and billions of people.

There are 195 countries as per the reports of 2020. Some countries are as big as Russia which is incapable of lying in a single continent and some are as small as Vatican City which doesn’t even surpass the city centre of New Delhi. No matter, how big or small you are – the hatred that has been incited within you is beyond your areal differences.

People actually misunderstood and misinterpreted patriotism with nationalism. A patriotic will focus more on loving his own country; on the other hand, a nationalistic will go on a path of hating all the other nations. So this is a kind of fake pride which a person takes while claiming himself a nationalistic. If any idea of love persuades you to hate another is nothing but political propaganda.

Fortunately, now there are movements in some countries to amalgamate the societies despite their differences. People are now realizing the fact that no matter how much they hate each other – the ‘de-fault’ love of theirs for fellow human beings will definitely manifest someday.

One should always keep in mind the very formula that faiths already acknowledge and now even Biology does so – we all are the progenies of one mother and father. Later on, people migrated to different lands. Due to climatic, geographical, and many other reasons – the person living in the east and the person living in the west developed different visual traits. Likewise, the world continued. But the message of love, peace, and harmony which is inbuilt in every soul sent in this world should never be left aside. The true essence of this life is to love the fellow human being regardless of his caste, creed, religion, ideas, nations, etc. And if there appears a stage where intolerance dominates the tolerance then worry not – rather start working on yourself, as for sure one day or the other you will get back to your ‘by-default’ stage.

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