By Gul Panag, Actor & Entrepreneur

Has intolerance increased? I don’t think so. Because intolerance has always existed, in every society — more so in a diverse, multicultural, plural society like ours. It is a function of deep lying fault lines in our social fabric which are a result of prejudice for anyone different from us, or for someone who does things differently from us. These fault lines, over time, due to various reasons get plastered over. They never really go away. But political correctness and social etiquette to some extent keep this intolerance in check.

Take for example the racial fault lines in the US. They never did go away, although legal measures have ensured that people confined their “intolerance”, their prejudices, to their homes or perhaps even their minds. The women’s liberation or suffragist movement is another example. Women fighting for their place in society were considered belligerent! Their protesting numbers were beaten by the police during protests. Even today, prejudice against women as equal stakeholders, despite the social veneer, hasn’t really gone away.

The situation has been no better in India. The prejudices against caste, gender, religion and colour have been deeply embedded in our society, and continue to exist today. Even when they are not expressed openly, we know the “intolerance” towards those whom we believe to be other, not our own. While all this about intolerance is factually true, it is equally true that many well-meaning Indians are worried and concerned about the socio-political situation in the country.

“Intolerance”, in that sense, has become the catchall phrase in which their anxieties, fears, discomfort, concerns and apprehensions have been boxed. Instead of focusing on intolerance which is merely a behavioural manifestation – a partial, incomplete one — we need to focus on the underlying cause of those fears and anxieties. These fears and anxieties are being driven by the narrative of muscular majoritarianism which has gained ground in the recent months. A section of society, which is politico-ideologically committed and aggressive in its approach, has been emboldened in the last couple of years to express itself more openly. Yes, the masks have come off and we should be happy that we can see them clearly for what they really are. But by self-identifying itself as national, these people seems to portray whoever disagrees with them – and that disagreement could be on a trivial issue of a cartoon or a serious policy issue as terrorism – as anti-national or being “politically motivated”. It is nobody’s case that the number of this group of people is large or in a majority in India. But they are clearly not being checked or rapped on the knuckles by the political leadership they seem to admire.

This silence – and in many cases, even tacit support – of the top political class has created a culture of impunity, encouraging this muscular majoritarian group to target others. On social media, that targeting may be verbal and abusive, while in real life, it might be vigilante groups stopping an art display at Jaipur.

But this targeting doesn’t always remain peaceful. As anyone who has lived through 1984, 1992 or 2002 knows, it manifests itself in extreme violent forms. For those who have been classified as the “other” – whether on grounds of caste, religion, race, or gender – by those claiming to be “nationalist”, it is this fear of a complicit state, unleashing these forces of wanton destruction.

These fears are not being addressed, these anxieties are not being discussed – they are instead being told to shut up and accept that ‘all is well’. This has worsened matters. Unless we see an approach from the people at the top, not just in words but deeds, which addresses these concerns and apprehensions, this debate over intolerance will not end. Because it is not about intolerance but something more sinister.

