From childhood I have heard greatness about India's diversity. Whether it be cultural, regional, geographical, religious or even of languages. It was always emphasised how different we are from each other within the same country. We were made to feel proud about our diverse nature and the feeling of being different was instilled so deep within us that we always became a Bengali, Marathi, Keralite etc. before an Indian. In fact the difference became all the more evident when I left my country and went abroad. I started realising that Germans flocked with Germans, French with French but Indians usually subdivided and South Indians flocked together, Marathis searched for Marathi community and even my parents asked me if I had found any Bengali association in the UK. The reason too was understandable. When I communicated with fellow Indians from parts of India I was unfamiliar with, I really could not relate much to them. It actually felt like we didn't really come from the same country. Regional differences aside, the class difference itself is so stark and prevalent in our country, that a person from lower middle class would have had completely different experiences in life compared to a person belonging to upper middle class (and I am not even comparing rich with the poor here!)
At this point the question arises where is the unity in all this diversity? My school text book always had a quotation on "Unity in Diversity". This is India's biggest moto. Then why don't I see signs of this unity anywhere? Why do so many states want their kingdom separate from India? Why do the North Indians and South Indians not get along? Why do people seek marriage alliances within their own community, culture, caste? The reservation system only pronounces the difference and inequality of certain sects of our society. Although it is aimed at equality, I don't see why an open category student would feel equal to a reserved category student?
India has such a huge population, collectively and as a team we can do wonders. However most of us are quite literally wasting our lives fighting this diversity. Right from getting admission into school/college and then later getting parents to approve our out of caste/community love interest and in successful cases living with the sky high expectation of a culture we are unaware of.
Personally I think each of us consciously need to take steps to build this missing unity in diversity. Without a feeling of nationalism, we cannot really fight bigger battles of corruption, illiteracy and poverty. And for this I do agree social networks have indeed built a common platform where people from all over the world and country can share and react to different incidents in their day to day life. But I don't think this is enough. There has to be a change in attitude as well. There should be encouragement for people to leave their own home towns and travel to different parts of the country. Meet people from different places. Live in different environments. It is time we take definite steps towards being a citizen of the country before being regional.
At this point the question arises where is the unity in all this diversity? My school text book always had a quotation on "Unity in Diversity". This is India's biggest moto. Then why don't I see signs of this unity anywhere? Why do so many states want their kingdom separate from India? Why do the North Indians and South Indians not get along? Why do people seek marriage alliances within their own community, culture, caste? The reservation system only pronounces the difference and inequality of certain sects of our society. Although it is aimed at equality, I don't see why an open category student would feel equal to a reserved category student?
India has such a huge population, collectively and as a team we can do wonders. However most of us are quite literally wasting our lives fighting this diversity. Right from getting admission into school/college and then later getting parents to approve our out of caste/community love interest and in successful cases living with the sky high expectation of a culture we are unaware of.
Personally I think each of us consciously need to take steps to build this missing unity in diversity. Without a feeling of nationalism, we cannot really fight bigger battles of corruption, illiteracy and poverty. And for this I do agree social networks have indeed built a common platform where people from all over the world and country can share and react to different incidents in their day to day life. But I don't think this is enough. There has to be a change in attitude as well. There should be encouragement for people to leave their own home towns and travel to different parts of the country. Meet people from different places. Live in different environments. It is time we take definite steps towards being a citizen of the country before being regional.
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