No, We Are Not Intolerant. Religious Violence Has Actually Come Down In Recent Years: Amish Tripathi

[video type='youtube' id='RXSQxV2i7YI' height='365']

Amish Tripathi, author of the Shiva Trilogy and the recently released Scion of Ikshvaku speaks to BOOM on the need to believe in a God, re-interpreting hindu mythology and the intolerance debate in India.

Amish Tripathi of the famed Shiva Trilogy says the need to believe in a God comes when a human's ability and capability to deal with circumstances ends. "As you have the right to not believe in a God, so do I have the right to believe in one, and this is liberalism is allowed by our ancient texts" affirms Tripathi.

From having read many ancient hindu scriptures, Amish personally does not think that there is anything wrong in having an interpretation that respects Mahishasur. He however feels that the words used by JNU students to describe Maa Durga were upsetting. These words represent a misogynist attitude of JNU students. It is completely the discretion of a person to choose to worship Mahishasur. “In ancient India Asuras were considered to be the cousins of Gods.”

On the intolerance debate:

"India has the population of both North America and South America combined, and hence if you see religious crime as data points then the recent incidents are very small in number. Religious violence has actually come down in the last few years."

"The data also suggests that violence committed by adolescents and violence against women have gone up in our country."

Amish, however, explains the adoption of concepts of blasphemy and considering other religions, practises as evil (banning of beef in many Indian states), is an adoption of the way semitic religions looked at 'non-believers'. He says, ancient scripts are one of the biggest ally in the fight to create a liberal society.