Unity in Diversity -Essay

Unity in Diversity -Essay

Diversity means that each individual is unique, having individual differences. Even in your class you may find children from different cultures, speaking different languages, following different religions and celebrating different festivals.

These differences may be because of personal qualities, physical features, social or economic background or cultural factors. Even those who have similar background may differ in height, looks, colour of hair or eyes. These differences however do not come in the way of your friendship. In fact, diversity makes our life richer and more meaningful.

India has always been a country with diversity. People belonging to different religions, cultural backgrounds, castes and regions have been living here in harmony for several centuries. It has accepted, tolerated and absorbed all types of diversities. Today, India’s diversity can be seen in her people, culture, religions, languages, festivals, dresses and costumes, dance and music.

Diversity in festivals
India is a land of festivals. People of different religions and regions have their own festivals which are celebrated by them with great zeal and enthusiasm. Hindus celebrate Dussehra, Diwali, Durga Puja and Holi, besides many other festivals. Muslims celebrate Eid and Sikhs celebrate Gurupuravs. Christians celebrate Christmas and Jains celebrate Mahavir Jayanti.

People respect the festivals of other religions and take part in their celebrations. Diwali is the festival of Hindus but you will find people from other religions participating in bursting crackers outside their houses with their friends. Similarly, on Christmas Eve, you will find people from all communities enjoying the  Christmas festivities.

POPULATION
The distribution of population in India depends mainly on physical features, climate conditions, means of communication, development of agriculture and industries etc. India is primarily an agricultural country and more than 70% of the people living in India depend on agriculture. The coastal plains where facilities for agriculture are quite excellent because of leveled land, fertile soil and suitable climate are very thickly populated areas.

People in India do not find easy means of earning a living in the mountains, deserts and plateaus. The mountain regions of the north have, therefore, a very low density of population. Due to unfavourable conditions of climate and scarcity of water, the density of population is low in desert regions too.

There are few towns and cities in India where development of industries has resulted in enchaned density of population in recent years.

Clothes
If we travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, we can see the diversity in the clothes and costumes worn by the people. The traditional clothing of Indians, in general, includes saris, ghagra-choli, salwarkameez, dupatta etc. for women and dhoti, lungi, pyjama and kurta for men. However, the traditional clothing varies depending on the culture, traditions, geographic locations and the climatic conditions in that region.

Food
Indian cuisine varies from one region to another. Indians are known for their love for food and spices. There is a huge variety of food eaten by the people in different regions depending on the local availability of food, raw materials, spices, cooking traditions and their religious faiths.

Dances
Each region of India has its own folk or regional dance. All the famous classical dances of India come from different regions, such as, Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu, Kathakali and Mohiniyattam from Kerala, Manipuri from Manipur, Odissi from Odisha and Kucchipudi from Andhra Pradesh.

Folk dances like Bhangra of Punjab, Bihu from Assam, Garba and Dandia of Gujarat, Rouf of Kashmir, Bamboo dance of Mizoram, Warrior dance of Nagaland, Ghoomer dance of Rajasthan, Lavani dance of Maharashtra, the Chhau of Jharkhand and Nati of Himachal are extremely popular and are performed in the respective states. They depict and represent the culture of the people there.

LANGUAGES
India has a vast linguistic diversity, consisting of the following 22 officially recognized languages as given in the Constitution.

Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The official languages of the Union of India are Hindi and English.

It also has several non-scheduled languages, about 400 spoken languages and a much larger number of dialects.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY
Unity in diversity implies that despite all our differences we are one!
The phrase ‘unity in diversity’ was given by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Our diversity is a source of our strength. - Indians display a strong sense of unity in diversity. From north to south and from east to west, the people have their own customs and traditions, yet they have been living together as Indians.

- Unity in diversity has been a distinctive feature of India since ancient times.
- Unity in diversity was strongly displayed by the Indians during the freedom struggle.

- Unity in diversity is visible in our cricket matches. In international cricket, all the players belonging to different communities and regions play together as an Indian team and represent India.
- Even today people from different regions have made valuable contributions in the development of India.

ADVANTAGES OF DIVERSITY IN INDIA
- It helps us learn about the variety of rich culture, languages and ways of life of others in our vast country and thus helps us enrich our culture.

- It teaches us that there are different ways of doing the same thing.
- It teaches us to be more tolerant of
others.

- Helps in building a progressive society which is willing to embrace the good features of other societies.
- Indian culture has become richer because it has borrowed a lot from those invaders and conquerors who settled down in India.

Diversity makes Indian culture unique in the world. Like a rainbow, it adds colours to our society.