Tolerating Diversity in India

Tolerating Diversity

Varanasi, India

July 2015

I first visited India in 1994.  I went to Madras. Then I returned again in 2004 to New Delhi to see the beautiful Taj Mahal.  Now I am in India again for a third time. The two other times, I was urban areas that appeared to me to have lots of English-speaking people. But here in Varanasi, I only one voice; I only hear Hindu.

In 2004, my guide spoke of the future of India. “We have a big problem,” he tells me.  “The Muslims”, he spoke despairingly of them. He was Hindu. “They are having babies just to make more Muslims. They are having very large families; ten, twelve children and those children will have large families. They are doing this so they can take over India.  They should just stay in Pakistan. They are dirty”, he tells me with complete disgust.  I was uncomfortable with his anger.

Ten years later, I see a huge presence of Muslims in India. In Varanasi, their presence dominates the busy streets. I see the women, not the men. The women are dressed in black burkas and wearing flesh-colored full-sleeved gloves while men are walking comfortably around in shorts and shirts.

I see a divide in communities between the Hindu and the Muslims and wonder and worry how these two clashing worlds will co-exist.