Religious intolerance, rather, is when a group (e.g., a society, religious group, non-religious group) specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds (i.e., intolerance in practice). According to the 19th century British historian Arnold Toynbee, for a religious establishment to persecute another religion for being “wrong” ironically puts the persecuting religion in the wrong, undermining its own legitimacy.
The United Nations upholds the right to free expression of religious belief in articles and 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights while article 2 forbids discrimination on the basis of religion. Article 18 also allows for the freedom to change religion. The Declaration is not legally binding, however the United States chose in 1998 to pass the International Religious Freedom Act, creating the Commission on International Religious Freedom, and mandating that the United States government take action against any country found to violate the religious freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As we know India has been the cradle of religious pluralism for centuries. We are probably the only country in the world that has been home for people of all sort of beliefs and thoughts.But growing religious intolerance in country is matter of great concern.
As of Wednesday, 41 novelists, essayists, playwrights and poets had returned the awards they received from India’s prestigious literary academy to protest what they call a growing climate of intolerance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Pertinently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the murder of a Muslim man over rumours he ate beef, in his first response to an incident that has sparked concern about growing religious intolerance.
It is high time that religious intolerance that is growing all over the country is curbed by taking effective measures otherwise it will have adverse impacts.
