Discuss the bonds of unity in India.

India is a country of rich cultural heritage with different religions, colours, languages, castes and ways of life. Underneath this diversity lies the continuity of Indian civilization and social structure. India presents a picture of unity in diversity to which history provides no parallel.

Bonds of Unity in India: Underlying the various diversities in India is the bond of unity, a characteristic feature of the country. Geo-political unity is found in India. A sovereign state, India is governed by the same Constitution and the Parliament. The norms of democracy, secularism and socialism exist in all parts of the country. The concepts of Bharatvarsh, Chakravarty etc. reflect the geo-political unity of India.

Culture of pilgrimage, i.e. visit to the holy shrines and sacred places e.g. Badrinath, Jagannath Puri, is widespread in India. It promotes interaction and cultural affinity among people from various parts of the country. 

There is a tradition of accommodation in India. Hinduism has subsumed several faiths within itself and is an all encompassing religion. For long, numerous religions faiths have coexisted in India. There is a mutual respect and sharing of religious sentiments with each-other. \

 Jajmani system is a manifestation of the tradition of inter-dependence. Jajman or the patron receives specialized services from various families and in turn, provide them food and other articles. It was a system of functional interdependence of caste which involved the whole local social order. It interlinks people of different religious as well e.g. a Hindu may have a Muslim barber.

Thus India, a plural nation, has a composite culture of national unity.

 The primary bond of unity is found in the geo-political integration. All the parts of India are governed by the same Constitution and is a sovereign, secular nation.

There is a culture of visiting famous temples and holy shrines known as pilgrimage. People of all religions visit such places which fosters unity amongst them. Pilgrimage is also an expression of love for the motherland, worship of the country. It thus can be viewed as promoting geo-cultural unity of India.

Being secular in nature, several religions coexist with each-other in India. There is a lot of accommodation and assimilation of various faiths within the fold of Hinduism. Two broad forms of Hinduism have been discerned– Sanskritic and popular. The former is found in the religious texts while the latter is found in real life situations. 

Hindus and Muslims have always taken part in each other’s festivities. They used to provide separate hearth and vessels for each-other so as to respect their religious sensibility. 

The tradition of functional interdependence between various castes is expressed in Jajmani relations. There is an exchange relation between food-producing families and families that provide them specialized services.

Several leaders e.g. Akbar have made efforts from time to time to foster Hindu-Muslim unity. In the field of art and architecture there is a blend of Hindu and Muslim style. 

Thus, India is a model of composite culture within an integrated nation. 

With over 900 million people and more than one thousand languages, India is certainly one of the multi-lingual nations in the world today. It is home to the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian language families, two of the world’s largest. The North Indian languages–Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati belong to the Indo-Aryan family while the South Indian languages–Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada–belong to the Dravidian family. Most of the more widely used Indian languages exist in a number of different forms or dialects influenced by complex geographic and social patterns. 

Sir George Greirson identified 179 languages and 544 dialects. The 1961 census enlisted 1652 languages in mother tongue. The 1981 census enlisted 112 mother tongues with more than 10,000 speakers and almost one million people speaking other languages. 

Hindi and English are used as official languages. The Constitution’s Eighth Schedule lists 18 official or scheduled languages–Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.  

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