Dr. Prabir Chatterjee
We can eat at the same table.
Even if you eat some meat that I do not.
Adivasi culture is one with nature. The word Ubuntu in South Africa means- “I am Because We Are”. It is the opposite of the Apartheid that kept communities apart.
In Ranchi we know that there are many marriages between different tribal communities. In many industrial towns and in plantations in the North East this happens too. It is quite normal. And the tales of the tribal taking fruits from a tree, but leaving one branch for the birds are well known. Tolerance is a typical value of many tribal cultures which encourage sharing and community living and mutual assistance.
In the city of Kolkata our classmates in childhood at a school in Park Circus were from UP, Bihar, Punjab, Bihar, Goa and Kerala. There were Hindi speaking and Bengali speaking Muslims, a Gujarati boy and, of course, some Sindhis. There were Bengalis and Anglo Indians in large numbers. In Asansol and Kurseong schools we had Chinese schoolmates and close friends who were Sikhs. Not to speak of the Bhutanese, Sikkimese, Tibetans, Nepalis, Rajbangshis, Mundas, Oraons, Kharias, Marwaris in Kurseong.
So in large schools everywhere there tend to be a mix of communities.
Then how does intolerance occur?
Is it when two small communities who have not met before clash over common resources, like grazing or farm land, a river or a pond? Then social meetings are banned, marriage is forbidden (like Romeo and Juliet or Laila Majnu). The family elders go to the leaders- a chief or judge or landlord or king. And the leader lays down social boundaries.
Or they go to a religious person and ritual boundaries are made.
If we want to encourage tolerance, we shall have to agree, that my social rules are not to be enforced on you. Your rituals need not be followed by me. We can eat at the same table. Even if you eat some meat that I do not. Even if I eat some strange vegetable that you do not. A holy man said, “For what you eat does not make you unclean”. What can make you unpleasant is what comes out of your mouth.
To encourage tolerance we could attend and respect your rituals, even though I do not practice them. You can attend and enjoy my festivals, though they are not about your culture.
I could read your stories and listen to your songs in your language and take part in your dances. You could sing songs in my language and write stories about us and take part in dramas.
This was the tying of the rakhi by the wife of Porus on Sikandar. This was the hugging of the Muslims and Hindus of Bengal when the British tried to separate them in 1905.
From tolerance grew the Ziggurat of Ur. But intolerance and misunderstanding brought it down.
From tolerance grew the Americas in the forest of Lord Penn (called Pennsylvania, ruled by peace loving Quakers who learned American Indian languages). But slavery and intolerance nearly destroyed the United States a century later. Tolerance was the motto of Ambedkar and Abdul Kalam and Sardar Patel. We hope it will remain that way.
(Dr. Prabir Chatterjee is a medical doctor and a seasoned socio-political thinker)