Editorial, "LET US NOT DILUTE OUR TOLERANCE," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15-31 March 2016 Martyrs Memorial Special issue, Vol. 12, Part 1, Nos. 5-6

LET US NOT DILUTE OUR TOLERANCE!

A doyen of proactive and progressive judiciary in India, late Justice Chinnappa Reddy, in his excellent opinion in the national anthem case, a 1986 decision that we have thought worth reproducing in the columns of this issue to serve as a beacon light in the present murky atmosphere enveloping our country, has left us this precious and unforgettable message: “Our tradition teaches tolerance; our philosophy preaches tolerance; our constitution practices tolerance; let us not dilute it!” We don’t find better words to express this noble idea and sentiment. Nor are we targeting it against any particular groups or sects indulging in all ruckus, rampage and unseemly agitations nowadays. We find both the so-called left as also the ever ebullient right extremists, or even a bit moderates of these groups, faulty for the present vitiated climate in the country; it is as if things are heading for a ‘common ruin of the contending classes’ as Marx once feared. Especially we are pained at a section of lawyers gloating over committing violence in the name of Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans or prosecuting and punishing conscientious or otherwise resisting objectors to that concept; or at the so-called liberal and left shamelessly playing the caste card, that too when they know in their hearts, or ought to know with any reasonable diligence, that it is a fake one. In this context this editor would like to remind one and all that the best way to pay homage to the glorious memory of the innumerable martyrs to the cause of our country’s freedom and welfare is to preach and practice the virtue of tolerance. In the golden words of Ramprasad Bismil, who exhorted, inter alia, that “हिन्दू-मुस्लिम एकता ही हम लोगों की यादगार तथा अन्तिम इच्छा है, चाहे वह कितनी कठिनता से क्यों न प्राप्‍त हो । जो मैं कह रहा हूं वही श्री अशफाकउल्ला खां वारसी का भी मत है… देशवासियों से यही अन्तिम विन[ति] है कि जो कुछ करें, सब मिलकर करें और सब देश की भलाई के लिए करें । इसी से सबका भला होगा । {Hindu-Muslim unity alone is our last wish and would be our memorial, however difficult to achieve it may be. What I am saying is the opinion of Sri Ashfaqullah Khan Warsi also. Our last request to the people of the country is ‘whatever you do, please do it in a united manner, and all that for the good of the country. This alone will cause good to the country’}”. Also let us not forget that the most cherished slogans of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and other martyrs were “Long live Revolution!” and “Down with Imperialism!”, they were basically non-conformist internationalists demanding and fighting for, in the then circumstances, independence to our country, and that for Netaji and the INA it was the short and vital  “Jai Hind” and nothing more. §§§