Chapter Fourteen

necessary is to promote among the followers of different religions a commitment to ‘live and let live.’ However, some people still advocate this failed experiment of monoculturalism and have given it the name of ‘social engineering’. Through this they seek to respond to the fact of cultural diversity among different communities by calling for the restructuring of their culture so that society may be free from cultural differences and all citizens of the state share a common culture. No matter what name it is called by—‘social engineering’ or ‘cultural nationalism’ or whatever—there have been no positive results of the effort to build and impose a single culture on people. It is tantamount to nothing less than what could be called ‘cultural bulldozing’. It is thoroughly impractical and unrealistic. And to pursue anything that is impractical from the point of view of natural laws is simply a waste of time. In this regard, my difference with the ‘cultural nationalists’ or ‘social engineers’ is not on ideological, but, rather, practical grounds. I do not say that their aim is wrong, but, rather, that what they want to bring about is simply impractical. Supposing it became possible for everyone in the country to start to speak one language, to follow one culture and to have the same traditions and way of life. If such a thing were to happen, I would certainly give this my seal of approval. But the fact remains that, in line with the laws of nature and history, this sort of uniformity is simply impossible. It has never been possible in the past, and nor will it be possible in the future. Cultures always develop according to their own laws. It is simply impossible to sit in an office and invent a cultural map of your choice and then go about imposing it on every community in the country. So, in this regard, we should do exactly what we generally do with regard to all other divisive issues—we should solve the problem on the basis of the principle of tolerance. One should deal with the matter using methods that accord with factual reality, and not through confrontational methods. Using confrontational