The cultural diversity of any country is defined by cultural markers such as language, religion, sect, race or caste. India is home to more than 1.21 billion people who speak about 1,632 different languages and dialects. Almost all the major religions of the world coexist in India. When these diverse communities are also part of a larger entity like a nation, then difficulties may be created by competition or conflict between them.

The Challenges Created By Cultural Diversity In Achieving Indianness

1. The difficulties arise from the fact that cultural identities are very powerful, they can arouse intense passions and are often able to mobilize large numbers of people.
2. Sometimes cultural differences are accompanied by economic and social inequalities, and this further complicates things. Measures to address the inequalities or injustices suffered by one community can provoke opposition from other communities.
3. The situation is made worse when scarce resources – like river waters, jobs or government funds – have to be shared.
4. There are many divisive forces hard at work tearing apart the unity and integrity of our country – communal riots, demands for regional autonomy, caste conflicts, etc.

Advantages Of Singular Culture

1. Recent communal violence raises serious concerns for the prospects for social harmony and threatens to undermine the country’s unity and integrity.
2. It is believed that in the singular culture there are no cultural differences, and hence no social and economic differences.
3. In culturally diverse societies, everyone strives to protect and preserve his or her culture, it undermines other important aspects of growth and developments.
4. Single culture brings stability in society and leads to overall national stability.

Why India Must Be A Diverse Country

1. The problems of India are not new ones. Almost all the major ‘divisive’ problems of today have been there ever since Independence, or even earlier. But in spite of them, India has not only survived as a nation but is a stronger nation-state today.
2. Modern India is facing a grave challenge to its constitutional commitment to multiple and complementary identities with the rise of groups that seek to impose a singular cultural identity on the country. These threats undermine the sense of inclusion and violate the rights of minorities in India today.
3. The Constitution declares the state to be a secular state, but religion, language and other such factors are not banished from the public sphere. In fact, these communities have been explicitly recognised by the state.
4. Although India is culturally diverse, comparative surveys of long-standing democracies including India show that it has been very cohesive, despite its diversity.
5. All the above observations suggest that India must conserve and preserve its cultural diversity, this diversity itself is the “Indian-ness” of India since ages.

What Should Be Done?

1. The challenge is in reinvigorating India’s commitment to practices of pluralism, institutional accommodation and conflict resolution through democratic means.
2. For building a multicultural democracy, we must recognise the shortcomings of historical nation-building exercises and of the benefits of multiple and complementary identities.
3. Successful strategies to build “state- nations” can and do accommodate diversity constructively by crafting responsive policies of cultural recognition.
4. Efforts to build the loyalties of all groups are important in society through identification, trust and support. National cohesion does not require the imposition of a single identity and the denunciation of diversity.
5. By international standards, very strong constitutional protection is offered to minority religions in India. India’s problems have been more in the sphere of implementation and practice rather than laws or principles.

Father of the nation, Gandhi, once said, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”. To protect this beauty of our civilization, the states carry out activities to promote a sustained and structured cultural connect in the areas of language learning, culture, traditions and sharing of best practices etc under the programme “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat”. Since cultural diversity itself is “Indian-ness” of our country, it is imperative to uphold this diversity.