Diversities In The Indian Subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent has seen and continues to see diversity in numerous forms. It is said to have one of the largest geographical, biological, religious, socio-cultural, linguistic and natural diversities in the world. Despite the tugs from various angles, there seems to be an abstract idea of unity in the country, one that brings questionable amounts of pride and disproportionate amounts of defense when questioned. In order to examine the existence of unity, it is imperative that one takes a finer lens to the underlying components.

Biological diversity of India is a widely debated topic. There have been multiple studies which have tried to trace the origins of the peoples of India. Indians can largely be traced back to two ancient populations – the ANI (Ancient North Indian) and the ASI (Ancient South Indian). While the ANI has been found to be genetically quite close to the Europeans and central Asians, the ASI is quite unlike the ANI or the East Asians. It is believed that the ASI were the earliest settlers in India, reaching around 65-70 thousand years ago. About 4000 years ago, the two groups mixed and around 1600 years ago what could be interpreted as the origins of the caste system can be seen. There was a major shift towards endogamy, a sudden end to gene sharing amongst the early people, perhaps due to social rules and values related to caste dictated by the rulers back then. But listen to India today. One can hear a decent amount of unity right?

Without the finer lens, the existence of the castes and the (widespread) caste based discrimination is not seen. And when these inner cracks are not visible, the country obviously appears united.

The country has seen a rise in caste based discrimination and divisive ideologies lately. There has been continuous protest against reservations since independence. There has been continuous oppression and continuous resistance since pre-colonial times. For over 2 centuries there was a forced unity and forced-but-fake harmony in the region. Times have changed and not changed since then. In the current environment asking difficult questions about these caste based discrimination incidents can prove problematic. Just anything can be converted into a test of patriotism and ‘unity’. One could say that the consequences of failing this test aren’t particularly pleasant.

India is also well known for its religious diversity. Being the birthplace of four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, it has also seen the rise of Christianity and Islam over the years. India is majorly Hindu and much of the cultural and religious space today is dominated by Hinduism. There are vastly different beliefs and surprisingly overlapping within these religions. The religious diversity also brings with it immense cultural diversity across the country. Religion, culture and tradition often share space on the dais as they are closely interconnected. This is considered by some to be evidence enough for ‘unity in diversity’.

However, they are very prone to quarrels and encroachment and rightly so. There has always been friction between culture, tradition and religion and it has increased recently. Viewing culture as static and overstating their relationship with religion and tradition and more often than not going beyond true facts in establishing and reinstating lost strength to these false roots is quite widespread in the current nationalistic atmosphere. Not to mention the false, toxic, dangerous, divisive, polarizing, grossly misleading nature of these claims and their effects on already parochial mindsets of the public. Not to mention the growing intolerance and violence towards and marginalization of religious minorities. Can Unity really exist without the underlying participants feeling united?

With nearly 800 different languages and thousands of dialects within these, India probably has one of the largest linguistic diversities in the world. Sanskrit is considered to be a major source for many of these languages. Historically, there were two major language families – the Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages. There was a significant amount of borrowing and exchanges between the two language families. Southern India is mainly populated by Dravidian language speakers while Indo-Aryan language speakers are spread across north and western parts of the subcontinent.

While about half of the Indian population speak Hindi or very similar languages, a large population in the south India do not. South India speaks 4 major languages in the 4 states – Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telgu. But this diversity is slowly being made to transform from a positive defining characteristic to a threat to the identity and unity of India. With the gradual imposition and integration into education of a falsely claimed ‘national language’, Hindi is now being forced onto parts of the country where it has never been. Any protest against the usage of Hindi is now seen as being anti-national and a threat to the Indian society. The definition of unity is being changed in a way that is starting to mean sameness.

Under such circumstances, which we are unfortunately responsible for, I am yet to be convinced of the very existence of actual, true unity amongst all this diversity. Speeches overloaded with claims of a glorious oneness in the midst of all this mayhem are common. Speeches within, speeches abroad… it is certainly nice to paint a beautiful picture. But what happens to these beautiful ideas when one returns to reality? Further, how can one try to deceive the very people in the reality about reality? What is celebrated on the outside is, in reality, almost non-existent. So where is it being manufactured? And by who?