A message to India

It is time to take note of good advice from US President Barack Obama, who returned to the theme of religious intolerance, invoking Mahatma Gandhi in the presence of the Dalai Lama, a peerless practitioner of compassion. In reiterating, “We see faith driving us to do right. But we also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge — or, worse, sometimes used as a weapon,” Mr Obama was spelling out a universal message particularly relevant to India.

The reference to Gandhi’s India this week takes it beyond the generic to a specific reference to the fear that “an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity” would be torn asunder by religious tension triggered by people targeting other people “simply due to their heritage and their beliefs”. There is universality and inclusiveness in the message that need to be understood as virtues in their own right.

To mix politics in this and see it as a loaded message is to miss the wood for the trees. True, the homilies of tolerance and compassion, stressed so often by Gandhi, apply to everyone, including white US police officers tackling African Americans.

To be able to see beyond the political plane and rein in those forces would call for a level of nobility with which we seem to have lost touch. At this critical juncture, finding religious tolerance is a challenge for the whole world.