Communal Egos and Inter-Community Conflict

very careful and concerned about it, your awareness, care and concern will compel you to exercise tolerance, rather than to get agitated and angry. It will impel you to avoid confrontation, and in this way you will be able to move ahead. Instead of getting stuck in a debate about who is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, you will focus on trying to solve the problem you are confronted with. If, however, you are not conscious of the delicateness of the situation you are confronted with, you will, start screaming at seeing your son perched atop an electric pole, as it were, even if this means that because of this he will fall down and break all his bones. The whole of human history testifies to the fact that if a person is sincere about something, his approach and behaviour will be different, totally contrary to that of a non-serious person. Only a sincere person will be willing to realize the significance of the issues he is faced with. Only such a person will be able to properly appreciate the delicateness of a situation that he finds himself placed in. In contrast to a sincere man, an insincere man will refuse to accept any evidence or argument that does not suit his way of thinking. He will use every means to rebut this evidence, raising all sorts of unrelated and irrelevant debates in order to obfuscate matters. If someone convincingly answers his arguments, he will set off a new debate, simply in order to refuse to change his stance. Such a person is unwilling and unable to see things as they are. Once, I met some Muslims from a certain town. Some days before this, a small inter-communal riot had erupted in that town. As is my wont, I spoke about the need to act with patience. But the men said, “In our town, Muslims did not do anything provocative. It was people from the other community who unnecessarily started fighting with us.” I asked them how the riot had started.