Tolerance

Hinduism constitutes the religion of the majority population of India while other religions have  prominent place in that country. This implies the tolerance and cooperation from the people who follow Hinduism. This is the unique feature of the Hindu religion which you wouldn't find elsewhere of the world.

You can call it as a Cosmopolitan and Holistic religion. How could you explain the co-existence of different sets of people following their own religions, and different religions existing side by side in the same region. 

The basic tenets of Hinduism suggest that each individual has his or her own choice of worship of god, and each person can have own methods to practice the religion. There should not be any harm or disrespect to the beliefs and methods of others following that religion and also each person respects other religious practices also. Because God is One and onlyOne. The methods  may vary  to reach Him.

The following occurrences in Indian History will amply vouch for the tolerance of Hinduism.

1) Several new religions emerged in India only. Buddhism, Sikhism, etc.. were founded and developed .

2) Several foreign invasions happened to plunder the abundant wealth of India. Persians, Afghanistans, Mongolians, Britons, Dutch, and French landed in that country and destabilized the oldest but intelligent  political , economic, and religious systems of the world. These invaders established and made all efforts to spread their religion. But no appreciable resistance ever came from Hindus.

3) Christianity, Islam, Jewism, etc. have spread well. The native Indians also adopted them as their religion purely based on their own choice (barring the aberrations in some pockets). Every Hindu has absolute freedom to change to the religion of his choice:absolutely, no law against this basic right of freedom as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

4) Inter-religion marriages are common in India. Again the Freedom principle.

5) Religions other than Hinduism are treated as Minority religion and the people of these religions are accorded special rights and privileges to encourage them to prosper.

6) Corpus of funds is provided to the people of Islam and Christianity to undertake holy pilgrimages to the places of Mecca and Bethlehem.

Truly, Hinduism has Tolerance as its policy and India is a SECULAR country.


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