UNITY IN DIVERSITY IN INDIA

1. Unity in diversity � Introduction

Unity in diversity refers to the idea of diversity as a unifying principle,
rather than uniformity. Diversity is essentially the underlying principle of life,
and the shift towards biology as a prevailing scientific discipline is leading to
an increased appreciation and value of diversity as a necessary measure of health,
vibrancy, and success.
Unity in diversity is conducive to nonviolent thought, as it resonates with
Gandhi�s principle of �heart unity�� the understanding, as Martin Luther King put
it, that �I can�t be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you
can�t be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be�. Celebrating the
tremendous diversity of humankind (race, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
language, beliefs, professions, interests, etc) and celebrating equally our shared
existence as living beings, and that the appreciation of that outer diversity is
part of what holds us together as a (nonviolent) culture.
2. Unity in diversity - India
India is a vast country, having a geographical area of 3287263sq.km. And a
population of little more than one billion people. Based on the generous concept of
Vasudhaivan Kutumbkam (the world is one family), we have a great cultural heritage.
This has accommodated and integrated many communities and their ways of life from
time to time. Human settlement in India had begun from early Stone Age and so far
it has been the homeland of many communities who have contributed to its rich
cultural heritage.
Diversity in India is found in terms of race, religion, language, caste and
culture. Sociologists say that Indian unity has been both politico-geographic and
cultural in nature. The diversities have remained, but simultaneously provided a
mainstream culture. For e.g.

A Muslim (Yousuf Pathan), a Hindu (Virat Kohli) and a Sikh (Harbhajan Singh) carry
India's greatest batsman (Sachin Tendulkar), on their shoulders after winning the
World Cup.

India is diverse in many ways but unite. Various diversities in India are �
religious diversities, linguistic diversities, festivals diversities, literature
diversities, cuisine diversities and economic diversities.

3. Religious Diversities
India, known as the land of spirituality and philosophy, was the birthplace of
some religions which still exist today. It is home to six major religions namely:

About 83% of the total Indian population is of Hindus which is the most followed
by 11.8% of Muslims, 2.6% of Christians, 2% of Sikhs, 0.7% of Buddhists, 0.5% of
Jainism and Zoroastrians and Jews make 0.01% each .
Hinduism is a colorful religion with a vast gallery of Gods and Goddesses.
Hinduism is said to be one of the oldest religions in the world, which developed
about 5000 years ago. Later, other religions formed.
Around 500 BC two other religions developed in India, Jainism and Buddhism. In
ancient times Jainism and Buddhism were very popular among Indians. Indians who
accepted the Buddhist philosophy not only spread it among the Indian sub-continent,
but even to places beyond.
One comparatively new religion in India is Sikhism and it was established in the
15th century. About 2% of Indians are Sikhs. There were other attempts to create
new religions in India but they did not always succeed. There are other religious
philosophies whose believers see themselves as a separate religion, but they do not
always get this recognition.
Along with the religions that developed in India, there are followers of non-
Indian religions. The largest non-Indian religion is Islam. Other people following
different religions are Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews. Judaism and Christianity
might have arrived in India even before they arrived in Europe.
4. Linguistic Diversities
More than 1700 languages are spoken in India as mother tongue. Indian languages
of today have sprouted, as it were, from various language families� vis-�-vis
ethnic peculiarities.
No one has ever doubted that India is home to a huge variety of languages. The
official number, 122, is far lower than the 780 that it counted and another 100
that its authors suspect exist. 220 Indian languages have disappeared in the last
50 years, and that another 150 could vanish in the next half century as speakers
die and their children fail to learn their ancestral tongues. India has a
fascinating diversity of languages unlike anywhere else in the world, with 780
languages and maybe another 100 or so which we were not able to report. So it is
like having about 900 living languages in a country, which is very exciting news.
Languages cannot be preserved by making dictionaries or grammars. Languages live if
people who speak the languages continue to live. So we need to look after the well
being of the people who use those languages, which means we need a micro-level
planning of development where language is taken as one factor.
English is the sky. The sky will not harm the tree, but if you chop the roots, a
mighty tree can fall. This happened with Latin, and should not happen with Hindi.
Out attitude of neglect towards smaller languages is a threat to larger languages.
Thus, English should not be considered as a threat as it can lead Hindi to the
brink of extinction.
5. Cuisine Diversities
The food habits of the one billion Indians varies by the availability of raw
materials, cooking traditions, local spices, and interestingly their religious
faiths. For instance, some Jain communities do not kill life to feed themselves --
including plants! This means they only consume fruits, milk and leaves only.
Many communities do not eat meats respecting the life on the animals.

Some communities define meat as "anything that moves" -- thus they consume
muscles, but not fish!

Besides the staples, the spices play an important role in Indian food. There are
so many spices to appeal to different parts of the body that the English language
does not have adequate adjectives to describe them. For example, the hotness that
touches the taste-buds is different than the hotness that makes your gums swell !

India also has a number of sweet dishes, mostly based on sugar, milk, and
unbleached sugar (called jaggery in India). The Bengal is famous for its milk-based
sweets.

In general Indian food is rich in oil and in spices. Rice and wheat are the
primary bases for Indian food. The coastal areas fashion seafood delicacies, while
the desert areas have mastered cooking with minimal use of water.
In places like Kerala people serve the food on huge banana leaves and eat
everything with only their hands.
6. Festival Diversity
India is one of the largest countries of the world that has multicultural and
multi religious societies. There are so many festivals of the different communities
and cultures in India that the country can be referred to as a land of festivities.
The country has three national holidays which include the Independence Day, Gandhi
Jayanti and the Republic Day. But apart from these three main holidays there is a
vast list of other holidays due to the festivals. Many of these holidays are
restricted to the states as they are more of a regional celebration like the
Bengali New Year in West Bengal and the Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra. But apart
from these holidays there are some which the nation celebrates together like
Deepawali and Holi. Apart from the main lists of common holidays there are the
birthdays and the death anniversaries of saints and leaders of the freedom fighters
of India that are again celebrated more in some states.
 Even the advent of the New Year is celebrated by the different communities at
different times of the year except the calendar new year which will be the 1st of
January. There are festivals to celebrate some of the smallest events or happenings
like the harvest season is celebrated in the northern states of the country. But
even in this diversity of festivities and celebrations the people of India have the
common rituals of praying to their God; seek blessings from the elders, exchanging
gifts and goodwill, dressing up in new clothes and other similar aspects. Feasting
and dancing is a common part of all the communities in India.

7. Literature Diversities
India has a glorious and very colorful past from the very beginning of
civilization, from the time of Veda. Amongst the different aspects of Indian
cultures, Indian literature has a recognizable heritage, mainly in epics
(mahakabyam), poetry (kabyam), dramas (natyam). Now, in 21st century, we realize
that it is not the question of supremacy but diversity, which must be discussed,
because modern India has 18 official languages recognized by Indian Constitution.
So it is very easy to imagine the complication of the language problem, precisely
the communication problem. Moreover, there are not so many writings in some of the
18 languages, which may be called as �literature�. Still we can have a lot of
opportunities to distinguish the diversification of modern Indian literature,
specifically contemporary fictions. Firstly, I have chosen four to five languages,
which have a lot to discuss.
8. Economic Diversities
In a country as large as India, regional variations are inevitable. Variations in
geographical terrain that affect agricultural productivity, differences in climatic
conditions and differentials in the availability of crucial raw materials, among
other factors, affect a state�s performance relative to that of others. But what
stands out from an even impressionistic examination of differentials in economic
performance suggest that these kinds of �initial conditions� are not the prime
determinants of regional inequalities. States rich in mineral resources such as
Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkand and Orissa are among the more backward, and the
performance of the North-eastern states cannot be explained by their geographical
weaknesses alone.