Topic Guide
Unity in Diversity:
“In today’s India, our unity is being undermined by our diversity”
[Special Note: This topic prompts students to closely examine India’s national motto of ‘Unity in Diversity’.
The phrase is open to multiple, often contrary and contradictory, interpretations. Does the motto mean India
is united despite its diversity, or through it?
Those arguing for the motion will want to consider the benefits of a powerful centralized idea of India based
on common heritage and history, shared beliefs of nationhood and nationalism to which identities of caste,
religion, language, culture and provincial origin are subordinated. The key question for those arguing for the
motion is whether India has focussed too much - and wrongly - on cultural/regional/religious identity.
Those arguing against the motion may want to stress the importance of diversity and pluralism as expressed
through sub-national identities of caste, religion, language, culture and province in the formation of the
larger, national Indian identity, emphasising that they are the basic building blocks that give India its unique
national character. The may also want to consider the benefits of toleration of diversity.
In balance, the debate hangs less on abstract notions of the idea of India and whether cultural differences
can unite, but more on the fundamental question of the role of plurality, if any, within a one nation-state and
to what extent is it politically expedient to accept diversity.]
Every child in India grows up with the textbook slogan that the country is one where unity exists in diversity.
The geographical diversity forms the backdrop of an equally varied ethnicity. According to many scholars,
India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African
continent. And whereas Africa is a conglomeration of as many as 53 sovereign nations, India is a single
political identity, a unique nation state.
India is the largest democracy in the world with a civilization more than five thousand years old of multiple
cultural origins. Its population comprises representatives of every major religion. A country of over a billion
people, India speaks at least 17 major languages and as many as 844 dialects. India is a nation where a
good part of the population does not actually understand their national anthem, and its currency is printed in
15 languages.
The unity and diversity debate in context:
India and the idea of unity
The idea of India’s unity has been problematic as long as there has been the idea of India. Prior to the
British, only the Mauryan Empire (324-186 BC) and the Mughals during Aurangzeb (AD 1658-1707) could
claim to politically unify all the territories within what is broadly speaking contemporary India. The contours of
India have changed often; the present boundaries do not include all the regions that have been part of India
at some time or another in history.
Critical commentators, while recognising the impressive progress made by this country in many fields, have
questioned the identity, unity and stability of India. A representative British view expressed by John Strachey
in 1888 held that ‘the first and most essential thing to learn about India – that there is not and never was an
India …possessing …any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious’. Winston Churchill famously
quipped, “India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator”.
However, one must also bear in mind that there is little in common between the vast empires of the past,
whether monarchical or colonial and that of modern India. It is possible to view the former empires as vast
swathes of territory subjugated under one rule, but today’s India is a formally recognised political nation with
its own Constitution and citizenship.
Topic Guide
Unity despite diversity?
A section of historians will say that this ‘unity in diversity’ has always been in India’s DNA. From the Mauryan
Emperor Asoka (273 to 232 BC) to the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556 to 1605) the emphasis of all perceptive
rulers has been on assimilation. Passionately affirming the unity of India, its leaders have not been able to
deny the existence of innumerable differences which divide the country. They emphasise the fundamental
unity of India and strive to promote and consolidate it in a welter of differences.
The post-colonial Indian state inherited this unifying impulse and has deployed mind and sinew to achieve
this elusive unity. Unity ‘through’ diversity has been more important post Independence because of the need
to form a coherent viable state and the subjects/citizens of that state to sign up to a single project and create
mutually acceptable political institutions
Given India’s diversity, crafting a unified nationalist movement forced Indian leaders to develop conceptions
of unity in diversity that eventually led to a federal structure. There has always been support for a strong,
centralised nation-state that over-rides diversity. In these days of globalisation of capital and terror, a more
centrist, unifying (perhaps unilateral) approach to the idea of India is often considered the more pragmatic
one. It is interesting to note that as a global financial crisis stalks all major economies, more and more
countries across the world are looking up to the state apparatus to bail it out.
India’s track record in border control and nation-building has been relatively superior to that of other
multicultural societies such as the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon and Indonesia. Sunil Khilnani, author of the
seminal book, The Idea of India, says: “India [is] the great project of social modernity set in motion by the
critical spirit of the European Enlightenment. And [this has] resulted in the creation of institutions designed to
acknowledge the presence of real differences in Indian society, but which also aimed to provide contexts that
could transform potentially violent conflicts into moderated, negotiable ones.”
One way of enforcing an idea of a unified India is by ensuring that all citizens are governed and judged by
the same set of laws. Political parties, primarily led by the BJP and its constituent partners, have argued that
enforcing a uniform civil code on India will tackle many of the problems posed by India’s diversity.
Diversity = division?
There is a growing suspicion that the diversity and multiplicity of India is being reengineered into
monocultures that could eventually lead to a ‘balkanisation’ of India. This sub-continent has been divided
twice –with the creation of Pakistan and India in 1947 and then again in 1971 when East Pakistan became
an independent nation. These have egged on expectations that a subcontinent thus divided is perhaps
further divisible. India attempted to deflect attention from its religious and caste diversities by re-organising
its territories along linguistic lines in 1956. However, within four decades, demands for greater regional
autonomy forced further divisions of territories that were linguistically homogenous but could not ensure
uniform economic growth. Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal were carved out of what were previously
thought of as stable, reasonably well-knit provinces and the rumblings of separate status for Kashmir,
Gorkhaland, and the Northeast states continue. Doomsayers note a strong irreversible trend of separatism in
a country that is imploding because it is too multifarious to be administered centrally.
Regionalist politics has been on the rise. The Gujarat riots of 2002 have been termed both genocide and
second partition while Raj Thackeray’s slogan ‘Maharashtra for Marathis’ has already cost lives. Not so long
ago, the Gujjar agitation held large swathes of North India, including the nation’s capital, Delhi, to ransom.
States are caught in a clamour of tribal issues, and resource allocation has posed problems, for example the
Cauvery water-dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. And the greatest single manifestation of divisive
forces in recent times has been terrorism.
Before the 1990s, terrorism was largely confined to the northern regions, particularly the insurgency-affected
states of Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab and in and around the capital Delhi. But in 1993 when serial blasts
shook Mumbai, western India entered the maelstrom. The first alarm in southern India was sounded in 1998
after the Coimbatore bombings. Although low-intensity terror attacks have struck eastern India since the
1950s, the scale of damage achieved by separatists in Assam after allying with radical religious and ethnic
Topic Guide
groups is of national proportions. We are still reeling in the aftermath of the attack on Mumbai in the last
week of November, 2008.
While Kashmir, Punjab and even the Northeast have captured international attention, the more insidious
challenge, very rarely reported internationally, has been the rise of ultra-Left or Naxalite militancy across
central and eastern India. To use V.S.Naipaul’s words, is India poised for a million mutinies now?
Deep down, these conflicts are essentially identity-based ones, a situation where typically whether one is
Muslim, a Gujjar, a tribal, a Marathi or a Tamil takes precedence over the overarching identity of being
Indian. The Indian political system, especially with the emergence of coalition governments, has mostly
stoked identity-based issues and politics, thereby exposing the darker side of pluralism. Even in Britain,
widely seen as a country that has embraced multiculturalism and plurality in the modern context more than
most, excessive diversity has been identified as a problem even by anti-racists and liberal commentators,
leading to an ongoing debate about the merit of cultural diversity.
Unity through diversity?
Political cleavages crosscut by language, religion, and caste make India a highly complex and multi-ethnic
society, calling into question the mythology of an India united from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. India's politics
naturally mirrors the smorgasbord that is her cultural identity. Coalitions of regional parties, each with their
hold on a territory, have been forced by the realities of parliamentary democracy to work together, following
Common Minimum Programmes. In that sense, at least, it is the diversity of India that has provided some
sort of a solution to the management of diversity.
If the roots of militancy lie in our multiplicity, heinous acts of terrorism also unite Indians. Attacks targeting
civilians have, over the years, taken on such an all-India face that no corner of the country is immune. Blood
on the streets in Mumbai, Jaipur, Bangalore, Pahalgam, Malegaon, Coimbatore and Guwahati has drawn a
red line across the map, bonding places and people who had practically nothing else in common. Today, the
dreaded activities of the Lashkar-i-Toiba (LeT) and Hindutva-fascist forces like the Hindu Jagran Manch are
as well known to an average Malayali as to a Kashmiri and are loathed by Bengalis and Telugus alike. The
jihadist massacres of Hindu pilgrims on the way to Amarnath or while chanting hymns in Akshardham and of
Muslim worshippers in Malegaon or Hyderabad spans other divides. The intentions of many terrorist attacks
in India are to provoke riots and divisions based on identity, but it can be argued that the effect has
boomeranged.
A growing middle class, the national electronic and print media, the rise of Bollywood’s version of India, the
nationalist appeal of sports such as cricket, and the rise of the Indian economy (which creates a common
market for everything from soap to mobile phones) have all contributed to the underlying unity of the country.
If India is indeed an idea then it also redeems itself in the realm of ideas. Individuals as diverse as the Nobel
laureate economist Amartya Sen, historian Ramachandra Guha and IT guru Nandan Nilekani, tend to
gravitate towards the summary that India’s diversity is the powerhouse that generates ideas, be it in the field
of abstract philosophy or hard commercial ventures and entrepreneurship; they stress that such ideas can
only prosper in a culture fostering multiple viewpoints.
In 1974, Milovan Djilas, in a futuristic study of the world of 2024 AD, wrote: '…I am not convinced that [India]
can remain united in the long run. The present linguistic units will gradually become independent and the
south-western, southern and the south-eastern parts of India will, most probably, separate into independent
states”. In a companion piece, Emmet John Hughes, a former assistant to the late President Eisenhower,
made a similar futuristic projection: 'The avowedly-democratic society of India may reasonably be counted
upon, not to unify, but to fragment -- possibly into as many parts as Western Europe. Against the backdrop of
predictions and prophecies, with its chequered past and eventful present, the outcome of diversifying factors
and unifying strategies will remain hotly debated.
Topic Guide
Essential reading:
Expand freedom for diversity to flourish Pratap Bhanu Mehta The Tribune 15 August 2007
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070815/independence/main4.htm
The idea of India: Shashi Tharoor on India’s mosaic of multiplicities Catalyst 18 January 2006
http://www.shashitharoor.com/articles/catalyst-jan06.html
Parochial identity politics threatens national unity Gulf Times 24 November 2008
http://www.gulftimes.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=256392&version=1&template_id=40&par
ent_id=22
Cultural Pluralism, National Identity and Development: The Indian Case A. R. Momin
http://ignca.nic.in/ls_03016.htm
Fifty years of independence – fifty years of division Raj mishra
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ipsg/eld/eld_rmishra.html
Imagining India: ideas for the new century Nandan M Nilekani The Economic Times 24 November 2008
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/View_Point/Imagining_India_Ideas_for_the_New_Century/articl
eshow/msid-3749273,curpg-2.cms ).
Too diverse? David Goodhart Prospect February 2004
http://www.media-diversity.org/downloaded%20articles/Goodhart%20%20Feb%2004.htm
Race chief wants integration push BBC News 3 April 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3596047.stm
The real value of diversity Kenan Malik Winter 2002 http://kenanmalik.com/essays/diversity.html
For
Only centrist politics will work in India Bhaskar Roy The Times of India 12 June 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2116231.cms
Call to keep vigil against divisive forces The Hindu 16 August 2008
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/16/stories/2008081651620300.htm
(Dis)unity in diversity? Amreekandesi India…from the eyes of a non-resident insider 30 September 2007
http://amreekandesi.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/disunity-in-diversity/
Regionalism: A serious threat to national unity M Shamsur Rabb Khan
http://www.centralchronicle.com/20081112/1211306.htm
The Indian terror scenario: A brief analysis The Naïve Indian
http://naiveindian.in/2008/05/18/the-indian-terror-scenario-a-brief-analysis/
Ban regional and caste politics Indiachange.com 14 February 2008
http://www.indiachange.com/ban-regional-politics-in-india/
Against
On national unity From the political-organisational report adopted at the Fifth Party Congress 1992
CPI (ML)
http://www.cpiml.org/archive/vm_swork/34on_national_unity.htm
Topic Guide
India: A country study Outlook
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6039.html
The Minority Question In India Asghar Ali Engineer 16 – 31 March 2005
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/fileadmin/Files/PDF/Literature_Recipients/Engineer___Agnivesh/Engineer__The_Minority_Question.pdf
India – unity in diversity Tarang Bhargava Ezine Articles
http://ezinearticles.com/?India---Unity-in-Diversity&id=1016646
India- a nation of unity in diversity Civics
http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Books/09/SocSci-EM/civics-1.pdf
Why India is a nation Sankrant Sanu Sulekha.com 9 October 2003
http://sankrant.sulekha.com/blog/post/2003/10/why-india-is-a-nation.htm#up1
The Argumentative Indian: A review The Asian Review of Books
http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/arb/article.php?article=557
An unlikely nation Ramachandra Guha New Statesman 2 August 2007
http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2007/08/democratic-india-british
India's spectacular diversity must be visible in its public spaces Vidya Subrahmaniam The Hindu 6 January
2007
http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/06/stories/2007010600821300.htm
In defence of multiculturalism Institute for Race Relations (UK) 21 February 2007
http://www.irr.org.uk/2007/february/ha000030.html
Doing the world differently Per Wirtén Eurozine 11 July 2007
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-07-11-wirten-en.html
Multiculturalism Alive In India Barnita Bagchi
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-bagchi290903.htm
Further reading:
Branding India Sunil Khilnani, India Seminar, 2003
http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/533/533%20sunil%20khilnani.htm
India Divided: diversity and democracy under attack Vandana Shiva Seven Stories Press, 2005
http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&id=yoj2SmTZIaoC&dq=vandana+shiva+india+divided&printsec=front
cover&source=web&ots=yjORolrrke&sig=fKwx2iyAZ1-I07vniG4kyRQoEY&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP1,M1
‘Diversity’ in India Thomas Sowell Capitalism Magazine 27 March 2002
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1511
Unity in diversity Meghnad Desai indianexpress.com 29 November 2007
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/unity-in-diversity-revised/244477/0
Diversity India’s strength - Seshan The Hindu 23 March 2006
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/03/23/stories/2006032307120400.htm
Unity in diversity M. V. Gandhimohan Mahatma Gandhi and the Bahais
http://bahai-library.com/books/gandhi/node43.html
Topic Guide
India's unity in diversity: Between traditional multiculturalism and modern nationalism Heinz Werner
Wessler 2006
http://www.con-spiration.de/texte/english/2006/india-e.html
Federalism and Regionalism in India: Institutional Strategies and Political Accommodation of Identity Harihar
Bhattacharyya South Asia Institute Department of Political Science University of Heidelberg May 2005
http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2005/5500/pdf/hpsacp27.pdf
http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/frontdoor.php?source_opus=5500
Regional parties are the bane of Indian politics Amulya Ganguli News Nerve 10 November 2007
http://www.nerve.in/news:253500113192
Key terms:
National identity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism
Balkanisation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization
Postcolonialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism
Monoculture
http://patrickdeneen.blogspot.com/2008/04/against-monoculture.html
Resources:
Indian official languages and the history of protest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hindi_agitations
http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/07/0901.html
In the news:
The task of taking India forward Markandey Katju The Hindu 24 November 2008
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/24/stories/2008112451891000.htm
Overdose of regionalism threatens India’s unity Riyaz Arshad Nazish Merinews 22 November 2008
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=150194&catID=7&category=Lifestyle
Divisive forces want to break this country Indian Express.com 30 October 2008
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/divisive-powers-want-to-break-this-country-pm/379347/
61 years on, India triumphs odds to celebrate Independence Day Amulya Ganguli Thaindian News 14
August 2008
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india/61-years-on-india-triumphs-odds-to-celebrate-independence-daywith-images_10083757.html
Celebrating India's linguistic diversity Shashi Tharoor 10 Aug 2008 Shashi on Sunday, The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Columnists/S_Tharoor_Indias_linguistic_diversity/articleshow/3346890.cm
s
Topic Guide
Contemporary India: diversity, discontent, and more Megha Sharma News X 3 August 2008
http://newsx.com/story/21458
No leniency for those stoking regionalism: Sonia 9 March 2008 expressinida.com
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/No-leniency-for-those-stoking-regionalism-Sonia/282210/