Speaking Tree - The Changing Meaning Of Religious ‘Tolerance’
Followers of every religion tend to believe that their religion is the exclusive repository of the ultimate truth, that the path shown by it is exclusive and definitive; and that the methods adopted by it to achieve salvation are unique and superior to those of others. This claim to superiority and finality leads to a conflict situation among followers of different religions and results in violence and hatred between them.
Tolerance of the ‘other’ is the technique adopted by different societies in general and religions in particular to avoid open confrontation. The first ever usage of the term ‘tolerance’ is traced to the fifteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the action or practice of enduring or sustaining pain or hardship; the power or capacity of enduring.”
In the sixteenth century after Queen Elizabeth I permitted the Puritans to carry out their practices which she did not share or agree with, tolerance acquired a new political meaning -- “the action of allowing; license, permission granted by authority.” The underlying idea was that it was a permission granted by the sovereign authority to depart from the norm.
One of the implications of the above usage is “tolerance is the prerogative of those with relative power over others. We do not tend to speak of the Puritans’ tolerance of Queen Elizabeth, just as we do not think of a parasite tolerating its host organism.” Tolerance according to Nietzsche, like the distinction between true and false, “is power based.”
Tolerance therefore is the voluntary acceptance by the stronger of what otherwise one does not merely disprove but also abhors. From this it follows that tolerance is “an attitude that requires us to hold in check feelings of opposition and disapproval”.
Tolerance can be of two types – internal and external. By internal tolerance is meant the capacity to live with religious differences within one’s own religion. External tolerance, on the other hand, means the capacity to live with the prevailing religious differences with other religions. It is related with the capacity “of enduring or sustaining pain or hardship; the power or capacity of enduring.” The two kinds of tolerance can also be termed as inter and intra tolerance.
The seeds of intolerance in religions can be traced to exclusivism. But Indic faiths believe in inclusivism or pluralism. Their attitude is characterised by the Rig Vedic saying: “Truth is one; the sages describe it differently”.
With the help of the parable of the blind men and the elephant Gautama Buddha advocates tolerance by saying, “These sectarians, brethren, are blind and unseeing. They know not the real, they know not the unreal; they know not the truth, they know not the untruth. In such a state of ignorance do they dispute and quarrel”.
The Jainas propagate tolerance by their doctrines of syadavada and anekantavada. Syadavada and anekantavada are doctrines which admit many-sidedness of reality, and the multiplicity of perspectives from which it can be viewed. Therefore there is no singular, conclusive, absolute and ultimate judgement of any kind. Once we realise that all our knowledge is a contextual understanding of reality, we readily become tolerant of the others’ viewpoint and the our feelings of superiority and exclusiveness vanishes.
Tolerance of the ‘other’ is the technique adopted by different societies in general and religions in particular to avoid open confrontation. The first ever usage of the term ‘tolerance’ is traced to the fifteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the action or practice of enduring or sustaining pain or hardship; the power or capacity of enduring.”
In the sixteenth century after Queen Elizabeth I permitted the Puritans to carry out their practices which she did not share or agree with, tolerance acquired a new political meaning -- “the action of allowing; license, permission granted by authority.” The underlying idea was that it was a permission granted by the sovereign authority to depart from the norm.
One of the implications of the above usage is “tolerance is the prerogative of those with relative power over others. We do not tend to speak of the Puritans’ tolerance of Queen Elizabeth, just as we do not think of a parasite tolerating its host organism.” Tolerance according to Nietzsche, like the distinction between true and false, “is power based.”
Tolerance therefore is the voluntary acceptance by the stronger of what otherwise one does not merely disprove but also abhors. From this it follows that tolerance is “an attitude that requires us to hold in check feelings of opposition and disapproval”.
Tolerance can be of two types – internal and external. By internal tolerance is meant the capacity to live with religious differences within one’s own religion. External tolerance, on the other hand, means the capacity to live with the prevailing religious differences with other religions. It is related with the capacity “of enduring or sustaining pain or hardship; the power or capacity of enduring.” The two kinds of tolerance can also be termed as inter and intra tolerance.
The seeds of intolerance in religions can be traced to exclusivism. But Indic faiths believe in inclusivism or pluralism. Their attitude is characterised by the Rig Vedic saying: “Truth is one; the sages describe it differently”.
With the help of the parable of the blind men and the elephant Gautama Buddha advocates tolerance by saying, “These sectarians, brethren, are blind and unseeing. They know not the real, they know not the unreal; they know not the truth, they know not the untruth. In such a state of ignorance do they dispute and quarrel”.
The Jainas propagate tolerance by their doctrines of syadavada and anekantavada. Syadavada and anekantavada are doctrines which admit many-sidedness of reality, and the multiplicity of perspectives from which it can be viewed. Therefore there is no singular, conclusive, absolute and ultimate judgement of any kind. Once we realise that all our knowledge is a contextual understanding of reality, we readily become tolerant of the others’ viewpoint and the our feelings of superiority and exclusiveness vanishes.
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