Dalai Lama in Aug 2017: "It is only in India that all the major religious traditions exist side by side."

Above pic is of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. Pic courtesy: http://resources.tsemtulku.com/free-downloads/his-holiness-dala-lama.html.

[To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

The article: War unlikely between India and China, says Dalai Lama, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/war-unlikely-between-india-and-china-says-dalai-lama/article19459137.ece, 9th Aug. 2017, has some interesting quotes of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, about flourishing religious pluralism (multi-faith environment) in India.

The Dalai Lama is quoted as saying in a public event in August 2017, "Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation for the welfare of Tibetans in exile in India. It is only in India that all the major religious traditions exist side by side. Sometimes problem takes place, not unusual as so many varieties of traditions live here. But it is here alone that all live in full freedom".

Ravi: I think the freedom mentioned above by Dalai Lama is freedom of religious belief and practice (religious freedom). Note that he does acknowledge that problems do take place sometimes in India. But he adds that that is not unusual as people of so many religious traditions live in India.

My reading of that is that Dalai Lama implies that it is not as if India is a nation free from religious violence. But the incidents of religious violence and religious intolerance, when looked at the overall picture of 1.25 billion people of India and the large number of religions and sects that flourish in India, are relatively minor. Note that I expect religious traditions and sects in India to follow the laws of India. In particular, I do not view objection and resistance to illegal in India practices of any religious tradition or sect as religious intolerance.

Another point to note is that religious freedom in India includes the freedom of having no belief/faith in any religion. In other words, Indian law permits anybody in India to be an atheist or an agnostic. I fully support this aspect of Indian law.

As an Indian citizen, a multi-faith person whose core religious identity is that of a Hindu but who loves and reveres religious figures of many other religious traditions as well like Buddha and Jesus Christ, and a staunch supporter of freedom of religion, I feel that even that relatively minor level of religious violence and religious intolerance should not be there in India. We are not there yet but let us hope that we will get closer and closer to that goal in future.

[I thank wikipedia and tsemtulku.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts and pic (pic from tsemtulku.com) from their websites on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]