India, The Land of #SelectiveTolerance

And proud at that!

Welcome to India, my holy motherland. The land of intolerance. There have been a lot of controversies in recent times about India being a land of intolerant people. Well, that definitely needs correction.

We the people of India appreciate free speech as long as Arnab Goswami disciplines people from all walks of life on prime time news, but we get baffled when common citizens express their views, albeit different from the majority.

We the people are tolerant, even forgiving, of film stars who drunk drive and kill people, and make inappropriate comments on rape. But we, the same forgiving people, uninstall a shopping app because another film star generally states his concern about the general state of communal disharmony in the country.

We the people, are proud of women who make a name for themselves as long as they don’t drink, smoke or live a life as they want. The moment a woman who has made her mighty khandaan proud is spotted with a cigarette between her fingers, she suddenly becomes a subject of ridicule. Tch! Tch! How could she blow off the respect earned by her ancestors with one puff?

We the Indians, are tolerant nay empathetic of men and women having flings as long as they keep the sanctity of unHoly matrimony. Who walks out of a marriage of convenience, after all? Aren’t we a land of tolerant people; people who tolerate toxic relations, friendships, work place, and marriage? How could one take the intolerant path of divorce? We are supposed to be tolerant! We are not America now, are we? We can boycott actors for divorcing their wives but watch first day, first show of actors who beat-up their girlfriends. It is after all their personal matter, isn’t it?

We the tolerant people, empathize with Hindus who eat beef during their sojourn abroad. After all, it’s a need for survival! But we, the same god damn, people kill if we even suspect that a Muslim has eaten or has plans of eating beef.

We are the mighty Indians, who strike a war against neighboring country on social media, while hogging Lahori Kebab. Who cares about Lahore if we can get those Kebabs in the neighborhood! Right?

We are so tolerant that our daughters leave their parents behind when they get married. Some of them even surrender their income to their family-in-law. But we the tolerant people have a landmark judgement from Supreme Court to divorce those wives who do not wish to live with the husband’s parents.

In fact, we are so amazing, that we worship Goddesses in various form on different festivals, but we stop our own women from entering the places of worship while menstruating. We are so tolerant that we worship a naked goddess but molest a woman wearing skirt. She is but a mere human after all.

We the people of India, take immense pride in our reverence for the said scriptures, but we, the same people never even bother to read even one. We are so great that Kamasutra originated in our land, but we could die of shame speaking of sex, sexuality or even condoms.

We are even better at acknowledging the fact that Gandharva Vihaah has been an ancient tradition. But we wouldn't shy away from ostracizing a couple living together without being married on paper, or even marrying against their family's wishes. We the people are really honorable for we take pride in killing for honour. The family's honour is attached to their daughter's marriage, wouldn't you agree?

We are the land of Ardhnarishwara, we even worship him her it, and yet we ridicule the LGBTQ community as best as we can.

We are a land of sanskaar (values), of parampara (tradition). We are absolutely not the land of intolerance. We are a land of #SelectiveTolerance!