NCERT Book Class 6 Social Science Unity in Diversity or Many in the One

A Rich Diversity

If you travel through India by train, you will notice not only changing landscapes but also many different types of dresses and food; you will hear different languages, familiar and unfamiliar, and see different scripts on the way. Even within your own region, you will often come across people from other parts of India with different customs and traditions. This is India’s rich diversity, and it is usually the first thing that strikes visitors to our country.

With over 1.4 billion inhabitants (about 18 percent of the world’s population), such diversity is not surprising! In the late 20th century, the Anthropological Survey of India, a national organisation, conducted a massive survey called ‘People of India project’ of 4,635 communities across all States of the country. It counted 325 languages using 25 scripts; it also observed that many Indians may be called migrants, in the sense of people not living near their birthplace or with their original community.

LET’S EXPLORE

As a class activity, make lists of (1) the birthplaces of at least 5 classmates and the birthplaces of their parents; (2) the students’ mother tongues and other languages known to them. Discuss the results in terms of diversity.

While diversity is indeed beautiful, making sense of it is not so easy. Over a century ago, the British historian Vincent Smith wondered,