Interfaith Dialogue Leads to Social Harmony

INTERFAITH DIALOGUE LEADS TO SOCIAL HARMONY The only way to avoid social strife is to exercise tolerance. One must ignore or tolerate the behaviour of others if and when one faces some grievance from others. In the course of a debate on the social conditions of India, a participant asked what the secret was to establishing harmony in a plural society like India. I conceded that the participant’s question was valid but pointed out that there should be one change in wording: “What is the secret of harmony in any society?” Often, when people think of the question of harmony, they assume, consciously or unconsciously, that it is a question that concerns only a plural society. However, this is a fallacy. In effect, this is an issue in every society, in fact, every country. The truth is that exercising tolerance is the only way to avoid social strife. That is, one must ignore or tolerate the behaviour of others if and when one faces some grievance from others. Maintaining a friendly relationship with another person is vital despite occasionally being unpleasant. In today’s pluralistic societies, people from different faiths and communities live together in the same space. As such, it is almost inevitable that at some point or the other, discord will rear its head. It is an inescapable fact of life, that the secret of harmonious living lies in finding a strategy to establish harmony, notwithstanding the existence of real reasons for strife. One such strategy is a dialogue that aims