India's Growing Culture of Intolerance

For a country which prides itself in the amazing diversity of its people and cultures, the recent trend of growing intolerance among the various sections of the society is both shocking and alarming. The recent attack on girls in a Mangalore pub by the activists of Sri Ram Sena joins a growing list of attacks against people for not conforming or agreeing with a certain parties viewpoint.

Be it the MNS attacks on North Indias, or the Gujjar agitation seeking a Scheduled Tribe status for their community, or the forced changing of the name of sweet shop from Karachi Sweets to Jai Sri Krishna sweets just because Karachi is a city in Pakistan, are but a few examples of how a small set of individuals or groups can hold a broader community hostage to further their own narrow interests or ideology.

What is even more shocking is the none of the perpetrators of these atrocities have been ever brought to justice. Granted, people are arrested or booked for allegedly disturbing communal harmony or some made up fancy word. Politicians and top law enforcement officials make statements that they will not tolerate such acts of violence and goondagiri. But the are perpetrators are usually let go on bail, everybody forgets about these acts, the court cases go pending for years. As for of justice to the aggrieved, the wait continues.

Be it Mangalore, Jaipur, Mumbai or any city in India for that matter, the story follows the same script. So the real question is how much is too much when it comes to holding other people hostage to further your own narrow interests and ideology? Have we reached a tipping point where this mass display of emotion is slowly corroding the social fabric of our country? For a country which prides in its history of non violence and peace, have we surrendered these ideals for the mob mentality?

As Amit Varma puts it sarcastically in his mob rules post "So the next time you want to protest, gather a mob and set some buses on fire. A lonely, civil voice counts for little. ". If this is true then it is a real travesty.