India, Feb. 11 -- World at large is suffering from acute polarisation based on religious fervour laced with extremism, supremacism and revisionism, across all faiths. This aggressive phenomenon when conflated with politics conjures a dangerous admixture of hatemongering, intolerance and 'othering'.

Very rarely do such dark times lead to the positing of alternatives that bear progressive and reformist interpretations of faith, inter-faith dialogues, and celebration of the proverbial 'other'. One relatively small sect (estimated globally at about 20 million) that defied this regressive trend has been the Ismaili Muslims, led by their spiritual leader, Aga Khan, an honorific title held by the hereditary Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Shias.

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