National Integration

“I am well aware, that I speak of a country containing congeries of races, religions and languages, and I know well the difficulties thereby created but these difficulties can only be overcome by the Indians. We are mindful of the rights of the minority. On the other hand, we cannot allow a minority to place a veto on the advance of majority”

The Caste system has aroused much controversy than any other feature of India’s society. Every day, Dalits are butchered, assaulted, abused, raped, lynched, shot or openly mutilated without considering any consequences of the offenders. The deaths of pregnant women who are not able to pay the bribes at government hospitals, some boys with eyes raised completely out for falling in love with a girl of a superior caste, and horrid stories of employees boiled to death because of spewing out arguments with the boss are continuously reported in mainstream newspapers. After years of democracy, the social structure stands to practice the caste system disregarding abolishment laws. Every international or national effort to abolish caste differentiation and segregation has been proven ineffective. The caste system of India is a deeply inculcated social problem requiring immense commitment domestically and internationally in understanding what has stopped the measures to get rid of this ancient system and what measures are needed to complete elimination of the system.

q. This shows that Nationalism still plays a large role in keeping India together, regardless of their diverse religious identities. Secularism

Historically, India was under British rule until 1950. Many people in India felt that during British rule they were powerless (Beteille, 2010). All of the problems in the country were blamed on this helplessness (Beteille, 2010). When India became independent and developed its own constitution, a large amount of emphasis was placed on the role of government in solving social problems (Beteille, 2010). During British rule, many customs and practices in India were based on the Hindu religion (Beteille, 2010). The British left those in place, neither making them unlawful nor supporting them (Beteille, 2010). When the new government was established, the caste system that had so sharply defined India was declared unlawful (Beteille, 2010). While this was a step in the

The Dalai Lama once said, “Major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness… the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives” (Huffington Post). This quote by the Dalai Lama speaks to the issues of pluralism and interfaith understanding. Pluralism is used to describe the diversity of different cultures and how they actively interact with one another. It engages the differences between cultures to obtain a deeper, more profound understanding of each other’s beliefs. To engage in pluralism means to equally support, accept and participate in the decisions of various religious groups as well as placing a positive value on faith and practice. In pluralism, all religious practices are considered beneficial as long as they follow the laws of the state and do not harm individuals within the community.

The religious text of almost any religion promotes peace, love and equality. Religion is meant to increase morality and righteousness, but the misinterpretations of the religious texts promotes violence and dispute. It is evident that the most influential events of history had occurred because of the blood thirst wars - provoked due to religion. The multiple components of various religions has become the primary cause for war. The mere difference of religion culminated to the Crusades, the Holocaust and gave rise to terrorist militant groups such as ISIS.

The modern society is a highly pluralistic society. Rapid transmission of information in the modern era and the ability of people to travel around the world on a larger scale has created awareness that the world and the modern society has a multitude of diverse and contrasting viewpoints on a variety of issues. This pluralism is evident in the realm of religion than in any other realm. Human awareness of the existence of the many religions in the world, today, is unprecedented. Christians are aware of the existence of many other smaller religions apart from the mainstream Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

As we go about our daily life, remaining naïve to religious diversity will only set us back. Clearly, the diversity of religions of the world floods American history (Gross, n.d.). In addition, it has also brought about a strong tendency to display hostility toward different religious positions (Gross, n.d.).

Religion plays a huge role in today’s day and age. In fact, religion has been of huge importance since cavemen were, well, cavemen. Religion is the factor that keeps many people going in life but at the same time, the same reason our world has so many problems and has been torn apart. Through studying the main tenets in call, Judaism, Christianity and Islam were analyzed for weeks. Christianity and Islam take the cake for the two biggest religions in today’s population however, Judaism plays the smallest role. These three religions, although different, are easily able to be compared and contrasted because of all of the history and information we have attained towards these separate beliefs. I think it is crucial that these religions be studied by people all around the world so that we can be understanding towards other religions, not just our own. Through religious beliefs, things we can learn through teachings and comparing and contrasting we can learn more about Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

As said by Jawaharlal Nehru in a letter dated 20 September 1953, “India is a composite country, composite in many ways, in religion, in customs, in languages, in ways of life”. It is a community which is known for its cultural diversity across the world. With having 29 states and 7 Union territories, India also has 22 different languages and 11 different religions practiced by a diverse group of people. It is a community where holidays and festivals are celebrated on a wide scale, irrespective of caste, and beliefs. Where on one hand the community celebrates Eid ul- Fitr, Bakr- Id, Buddha Jayanti, and Baisakhi, there on the other, it also enthusiastically participates in the festivals like Diwali, Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, and Christmas. Not only the community shares different festivals but also share diverse places of worship. Where on one side there is a Temple and Gurudwara, there on the other is Mosque and Church. This brings an admirable combination of languages, rituals, festivals, cuisines, clothes, and principles in one diverse community, India. The above facts prove the fact that India has a very rich cultural heritage and the diversity in culture has been one of the strengths for development in

A few disadvantages of India’s social system are that Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social organizations. According to the US Department of State-Background Notes website, even though the government has declared the caste system as illegal, it still has a presence in occupational and societal hierarchies (The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs, 2010).

This work focuses on the importance of religion in terms of world peace. Both writers, Ven. Master Hsüan Hua and Ven. K. Sri Dhummanada give several reasons why world peace has yet to be achieved, as well as ways in which humankind can reach world peace. Both authors focus on the conflicts present in humankind and offer insight into ways to change that would allow humankind to reach world peace. Hua stated that Buddha, ultimately, wanted everyone to be happy, which is what these two are encouraging humans to strive for.

Because of relevancy of contextual secularism in India ‘Bhargava’ fully favored this concept, he stated that, “the impulse behind the contextual secularism is to secure dignified life for all , prevent discrimination on grounds of religion, check religious bigotry and manage frendzied internecine conflicts that plunge societies in to an escalating spiral of violence and cruelty. The intermingling of religion and politics is permitted as long as helps meet these objectives but if any form of blending their amalgation must be restricted.

The origin of the discussion on secularism in India dates back to the idea of “India” itself. That is why every discussion on secularism also brings in debates on nationalism/nationhood. The India that we see today, with its well defined political and geographical boundaries, that extends from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Gujarat to Bengal was the product of independence movement against British. On that fateful eve of August 14, 1947, when the Jawahar Lal Nehru made that eventful speech on ‘tryst with destiny’- when the whole world slept, India awoke to freedom. But what we should not be oblivious about is that it was not only the celebration of India’s independence. It was the day in which a New India was born. For a long time, we were not even one country, but was made up of several kingdoms; there were times when the vast portions of this subcontinent came under one empire; the country was invaded many times by foreigners; some of them settled down here, became Indians and ruled

We have perused in the past sections that there are numerous minority communities in India and our constitution itself has made numerous laws for them to shield their society and to give them education and to help them in different approaches to carry on a content and safe lives. The Indian Constitution guarantees "justice, social, economic and political" to all citizens. The Indian Constitution has additionally embraced measures for the security of the privileges of the religious and ethnic minorities and of the socially and economically burdened classes, for example, the scheduled classes and scheduled tribes. For example,