Saw a programme on a T.V. channel in which some of he panellists were saying that intolerance was going on in India since decades, so why this hue and cry now ? It is because of political motives, according to these panellists.
It is true that intolerance is nothing new, but the point is that it has recently been intensified in India.
The reason for this is that the contradictions in India have sharpened lately. Take a single factor. The prices of essential foodstuffs have gone through the roof, e.g. dal selling at Rs.200 a kilo, onions too expensive, etc.
Incomes are relative to the price index. For instance, suppose a man was earning Rs.20,000 a month. Now if prices double and he keeps earning Rs.20,000 a month, in fact he is earning Rs.10,000 a month. In other words, his real income has halved.
This is naturally causing tremendous discontent in the masses, coupled with other factors like rising unemployment, lack of healthcare etc.
This popular discontent in the Indian masses makes them turn to popular agitations, and to divert attention from them the rulers resort to fanning communal hatred and intolerance.
One may recall that in Germany when popular discontent mounted due to the inflation and high unemployment in the 1920s and early 1930s the Nazis whipped up hatred of Jews who became a scapegoat, and it was propagated by Hitler, Goebbels and others that the Jews were responsible for all the problems in Germany
