Tolerance essentially means acceptance of ”differences”. It is the ability or willingness to accept the existence of opinions or behaviour that one disagrees with.
Importance in contemporary times:
- Diverse, multicultural democratic social setup of the contemporary times where more people have greater access to express their various opinions on social media etc.
- Intolerance in politics have promoted disruption in parliamentary proceedings, hate speeches in rallies etc.
- It further has promoted ‘moral policing’ leading to religious Intolerance- in the form of beef ban, etc
- In International relations where countries often get involved in zero sum games. Eg – WTO Issues, trade treaties etc
- Important in a multi-polar world. Eg – immigrants are routinely discriminated
- Tolerance in gender + minority issues
Above all, tolerance forms the bedrock for other values like mutual respect, humility, harmony to flourish.