Religious Intolerance as a Challenge to Pluralistic Existence. India’s Experience
Religious Intolerance as a Challenge to Pluralistic Existence. India’s Experience

Summary/Abstract: The socialist, secular and democratic republic of India takes pride in the motto of “Unity in diversity”. The founders of the Indian Constitution have taken much effort to consider its religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity in order to make the concept of a federal or unified India a reality. Given its amazing diversities and contrasts, India offers the biggest example that can express the characteristics, challenges, threats and prospects of the pluralistic existence of any society. This paper looks into the challenges of communalism, which can be explained as the politicization of religious intolerance, to the religious pluralism in India. Though India’s successful development, with its secular credentials and federal nature, has always faced continuous challenges and grave threats from the divisive forces of communalism, provincialism, and religious and linguistic extremism, this paper argues that India’s pluralism has an inherent capacity to remain intact in the long run, and India cannot neglect its religious diversities forever.

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