Understanding Diversity Test 4

Feelings and sentiments of nationhood emerged mainly during freedom struggle. British exploited India in all the ways possible. Due to emerging social awakening ideas by few intellectuals led to the growth of brotherhood among Indian population.

‘Unity and integrity of the nation as a major objective’ is included in the preamble of Indian constitution. This is very important because India has a wide variety of cultures mixed up and living together without hurting or harming each other.

India is a vast and diverse nation. It harbours various cultures, traditions, religions, caste, ethnic groups, languages and races. Unity in diversity is keeping India unified. There are several factors that contribute to Unity in Diversity. India has its own natural boundaries because of which people of different communities live together.

Language is a medium of communication. There are a huge number of languages spoken over the world. In India there are 22 official or recognised languages. The list of official languages include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.National language of India is Hindi.

The culture of India refers collectively to the thousands of distinct and unique cultures of all religion and communities present in India. The Indian culture has vivid nature. India is a country where we find different languages, religion. caste. culture, food, and customs that changes at every mile. Indian culture is ruled by different people living here who celebrate their custom, religion, and culture with great enthusiasm.

During the British rule India became geographically united under one ruler. But people were not emotionally integrated because policy of British was to divide and rule. They aggravated the differences between different rulers of India and people.

Communalism is defined as the excessive love or affinity towards one’s religion. It results in hatred towards other religions. It is one of the many threats to national integration. National integration council deals with problems that arise due to communalism in India.

Feeling of togetherness or oneness towards one’s own country is called National integration. India, which is, in spite of being diverse with many languages, religions, castes, creed etc. there is a feeling of oneness among people. Following promote national integration: Constitutional provisions, governmental Initiatives, national festivals and symbols.

Initiative of government to promote national integration is National Integration Council. National integration council is a group of senior politicians and public figures who gather and look ways to solve communalism, casteism and regionalism. It was started in 1962. The head of National integration council is prime minister. 

Feeling of togetherness or oneness towards one’s own country is called National integration. India, which is, in spite of being diverse with many languages, religions, castes, creed etc. there is a feeling of oneness among people. National integration is necessary for building strong and prosperous nation. Festivals promote national integration. For example festivals like Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali etc are celebrated by people of India irrespective of the religions.