Q.Search for quotations from different religious scriptures that affirm the ideal of equality. Read these to the classroom.

Many major religious traditions affirm, in different words, that all human beings share a common worth or origin — which is exactly why the chapter calls equality an ideal implicit in all faiths.

The connection between religion and the political idea of equality is not incidental. Long before "equality" became a modern political term, the idea that all human beings share a common origin or spiritual nature — and therefore deserve equal consideration — already existed within religious teaching across the world. Political theory later drew on exactly this idea when it developed concepts like universal human rights.

For the activity itself, look for statements in your own faith tradition, or explore some of the examples commonly discussed alongside this chapter's themes:

• In the Christian tradition, a verse from the Bible often cited in this context (Galatians 3:28) speaks of there being no distinction — neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free — within a shared spiritual community.
• In the Sikh tradition, the Guru Granth Sahib is widely cited for rejecting caste distinctions and emphasising the common humanity of all people.
• In the Hindu tradition, verses of the Bhagavad Gita describing the "equal-visioned" sage — one who sees a scholar, a cow, an elephant, or a person from a lower caste with the same eye — are commonly referenced in discussions of equality.
• Islamic teaching is often summarised (echoing the Prophet's Farewell Sermon) through the idea that no person has superiority over another except through righteous conduct, regardless of race or lineage.

Pick one or two of these — or better still, examples from your own family's or community's tradition — read the fuller passage, and be ready to explain in your own words how it connects to the political idea of equality discussed in this chapter.