Chapter 1 – Understanding Diversity

Page No 12:

Question 1:

Draw up a list of the different festivals celebrated in your locality. Which of these celebrations are shared by members of different regional and religious communities?

Answer:

This question cannot have one correct response. First of all, make a list of all the festivals celebrated in your locality. Then, speak to the members of your locality to find the similarity in these festivals with respect to the members of different regional and religious communities.

Question 2:

What do you think living in India with its rich heritage of diversity adds to your life?

Answer:

To know and experience the geographical, biological, political, social and cultural diversity of India adds value to one’s life. The variety that surrounds us helps us develop, and become tolerant towards difference. Coming into contact with different individuals representing different points of view—in terms of religion, region, language and tradition—broadens one’s understanding of the self and the other.

Question 3:

Do you think the term “unity in diversity” is an appropriate term to describe India? What do you think Nehru is trying to say about Indian unity in the sentence quoted above from his book The Discovery of India?

Answer:

India is a land of much diversity. Though this diversity is often a cause for several internal differences and squabbles, the sense of being ‘Indian’ overrides and dominates the differences, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of difference. What Nehru is trying to say is that the idea of ‘Indian unity’ is not something imposed from outside, though at first sight this may seem to be the case. He says that the ‘Indianness’, the spirit of oneness is something that comes from within. This spirit of oneness is tolerant and accommodating; this is the spirit that enabled India to attain its diverse character.

Question 4:

Underline the line in the poem sung after the Jallianwalla massacre, which according to you, reflects India’s essential unity.

Answer:

The blood of Hindus and Muslims flows together today

Question 5:

Choose another region in India and do a similar study of the historical and geographical factors that influence the diversity found there. Are these historical and geographical factors connected to each other? How?

Answer:

Apart from geographical factors, choose a region that has a rich historical diversity. Then, try and find the linkages between these factors. Once you are able to form linkages, you would be able to find the reasons for the same.

Read this too