The spirit of tolerance and love is not only an interesting feature of Indian society from very early times, but it is also playing an important part at the present. Elaborate.

The Rig Vedic dictum 'Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti' — truth is one, the wise call it by many names — captures a civilisational ethos of tolerance and love that has defined Indian society from antiquity and remains a living force today.

Tolerance and love from early times

• Ashoka's Dhamma: Rock Edict XII asks citizens to honour all sects and restrain glorification of one's own.
• Refuge to the persecuted: the Jews of Kerala, Syrian Christians and Zoroastrian Parsis settled peacefully and flourished without forced assimilation.
• Bhakti-Sufi confluence: Kabir, Guru Nanak and the Chishti saints preached a religion of love transcending caste and creed.
• Statecraft of accommodation: Akbar's sulh-i-kul and the Ibadat Khana institutionalised inter-faith dialogue.
• Philosophical pluralism: Jainism's anekantavada — the many-sidedness of truth — made intellectual tolerance a doctrine in its own right.
• Syncretic culture: Indo-Islamic architecture, Urdu and shared shrines reflect a composite heritage.

Its role at present

• Constitutional embodiment: freedom of religion (Articles 25–28) and the citizen's duty to preserve India's composite culture (Article 51A(f)); S.R. Bommai (1994) made secularism part of the basic structure.
• Everyday syncretism: langars open to all, inter-community participation in festivals, shared pilgrim sites such as Ajmer Sharif and Shirdi.
• Social capital in crises: cross-community relief during COVID-19 and floods, and local peace committees defusing tension.
• Democratic glue: tolerance is what allows extraordinary religious and linguistic diversity to coexist within one stable democracy.
• Soft power: 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', the theme of India's G20 presidency, projects this ethos globally.

Episodes of polarisation and hate speech test this inheritance, but the deep-rooted spirit of accommodation remains Indian society's strongest safeguard. Nurturing it consciously — through value education, even-handed law enforcement and an inclusive public culture — is essential to keep unity in diversity a lived reality rather than a slogan.