Amir Suhail Wani

At a time when religion is cast as a source of division, conflict, and exclusion, Religious Tolerance: A History by Arvind Sharma offers a counterintuitive and intellectually provocative thesis: that the resources for tolerance are not external correctives imposed upon religion, but are deeply embedded within the traditions themselves.

Sharma, a scholar of comparative religion, undertakes an ambitious historical survey of the world’s major religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and East Asian traditions such as Confucianism and Daoism.

His objective is corrective. Against the dominant modern narrative that portrays religion as inherently intolerant and in need of secular restraint, Sharma seeks to demonstrate that religious traditions have long nurtured their own internal frameworks of pluralism, coexistence, and mutual respect.

What makes this work particularly compelling is its method. Rather than engaging in abstract theological speculation, Sharma grounds his argument in historical evidence. He excavates episodes, doctrines, and practices that reveal a more nuanced picture of religious life—one in which diversity is not always suppressed, but often negotiated and even embraced.

Thus, he challenges the reductionist view that equates religion with dogmatism or exclusivism.

One of the book’s most significant contributions lies in its reframing of the debate on tolerance. In contemporary discourse, tolerance is often seen as a secular virtue imposed upon religious societies from the outside. Sharma, however, reverses this logic. He argues that each religious tradition contains conceptual and ethical resources that can sustain a culture of tolerance from within. This is not merely a historical observation but a normative claim: that the future of peaceful coexistence depends less on abandoning religion and more on recovering its more generous and inclusive strands.

Yet, this ambitious thesis is not without its limitations. Critics may argue that Sharma’s approach risks being overly selective, privileging moments of harmony while downplaying episodes of conflict, persecution, and doctrinal rigidity that are equally part of religious histories. In his effort to construct a hopeful narrative, Sharma occasionally appears to smooth over the tensions and contradictions that make the study of religion so complex.

Moreover, the book’s tone is unmistakably conciliatory. While this lends it a certain moral appeal, it may also raise questions about analytical rigour. Can the history of religious tolerance be told without equally confronting the history of intolerance? And does emphasising internal resources for tolerance risk overlooking the role of external forces—political, economic, and social—in shaping religious attitudes?

Despite these concerns, Religious Tolerance: A History remains a significant and timely intervention. It invites readers to move beyond simplistic binaries—religion versus secularism, faith versus reason—and to engage with the internal diversity of religious traditions. In an age marked by identity conflicts and ideological polarisation, Sharma’s work serves as a reminder that traditions are not monoliths; they are living, evolving systems capable of self-critique and renewal.

Ultimately, the book is less a definitive history than a philosophical proposition grounded in history: that the path to coexistence may lie not in transcending religion, but in deepening our understanding of it.

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Whether one agrees with Sharma’s conclusions or not, his work compels a reconsideration of one of the most pressing questions of our time: Can religion be a force for peace? His answer, cautiously optimistic yet firmly argued, is that it already has been, and can be again. In that sense, Sharma’s book is not just a study of the past; it is an invitation to rethink the future.

Religious Tolerance: A History, Arvind Sharma; Harper Collins India; ₹ 722