Essay: Tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in any community

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Discuss the view that tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in any community or country.

The progress of any community or country depends largely on the conduct of the people who reside in it. Discontent, jealousies, prejudices, and intolerance among a few of the people can cause great damage to the whole community or country.

Gregarious by nature, men hate go live in isolation. The urge for association, therefore, enables men to tolerate the views and habits of others, to great extent. Most men have come to realize that the cohesion of society cannot be secured without the exercise of tolerance on the part of its members.

A community or a country is composed of various types of people, whose psychological social and temperamental attitudes and needs are not the same. In a great number of cases, there are fundamental differences even in race, language and religion among the people. This is the result of the economic and social necessities of the modern age, which have compelled people to leave their original homes and live among people of foreign descent. These diversities in a community or country necessitate the maintenance of a tolerant attitude on the part of the people towards one another. They have to respect the cultural and social habits and beliefs of one another and refrain themselves from doing, or saying things which might offend the susceptibilities of some people. The racial and religious clashes that have occurred in various parts of the world indicate the damage that the expression of hatred and prejudice can cause in a country. Even differences in the color of the skin can cause trouble and violence in a community, and when passions are aroused, men lose their reason and sense of proportion and indulge in the most barbaric acts. Innocent lives become the victims of insensate cruelty.

That tolerance is essential for peace and harmony in a country could be illustrated by reference to the people in Malaysia, a country in which people of various races reside. Despite cultural, racial and religious differences among themselves, the people here have lived for generations in peace and harmony. They have also helped one another in various ways at various times. It must be admitted, however, there have been a few incidents from time to time caused by communal differences in certain localities, yet they can hardly be attributed to the development of a new nation, which has become the envy of many countries. The racial unity among the people is the main factor that has contributed to the progress of the country in all spheres of activity.

Another country that deserves mention is the United States of America. The people of this country too are made up of a diversity of races and cultures. Yet, by tolerance, cooperation and goodwill among the people as a whole, it has become the richest country in the world. All this proves what could be achieved by the people of a community or a country who exercise tolerance among themselves.”