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UNIT - I Diversity Diver Diversity Diversity Diversity Diversity Diversity 2020-21

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UNIT - I

Div

ersi

ty

Diver

DiversityDiversity

Diversity

Diversity

Diversity

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National Anthem of India

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya heBharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Punjaba-Sindhu-Gujarata-MarathaDravida-Utkala-Banga

Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Gangauchchala-jaladhi-taranga.

Tava shubha name jage, tava shubha asisa mage,gahe tava jaya-gatha.

Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya heBharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he,jaya jaya jaya jaya he!

Translation of the National Anthem

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,dispenser of India’s destiny.Thy name rouses the hearts ofthe Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maratha,of the Dravida and Odisha and Bengal.It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.The saving of all people waits in thy hand,thou dispenser of India’s destiny.Victory, Victory, Victory to thee!

Note: “Jana Gana Mana” was translated by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore from Bengali to English inFebruary 1919 at Madanapalle in the District of Chittoor. (Source: www.btcollege.org)

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Look around you in the classroom: do you seeanyone who looks exactly like you do? In thischapter you will learn that people are different fromeach other in many ways. Not only do they lookdifferent but they might also belong to differentregional, cultural or religious backgrounds. Thesedifferences enrich our lives in many ways and alsomake them more fun!

All these different people, who come from all kinds ofbackgrounds, and belong to all kinds of religions andcultures help to make India so interesting and sodiverse. What does diversity add to our lives? Howdid India become like this? Are all kinds of differencea part of diversity? Can diversity also be a part ofunity? Read this chapter to find some answers.

Chapter 1

UnderstandingDiversity

hree children around your age have drawnthe figures above. Use the empty box to

draw your human figure. Is your drawingsimilar to any of the others? The chances arethat your drawing is quite different from theother three, which you can see are quitedifferent from each other. This is because eachone of us has a unique drawing style. We notonly don't look exactly like each other but alsodiffer in terms of the language we speak, ourcultural backgrounds, the religious rituals weobserve and, of course the way we draw!

T

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4 / Social and Political Life

Now ask your teacher to help youcheck, how many of you have similaranswers. Is there anyone whose listmatches yours exactly? Probably not.But many of you may have similaranswers. How many like reading thesame kind of books? How manydifferent languages are spoken by thestudents in your class?

By now you must have recognisedthe many ways in which you are quitelike some of your classmates andother ways in which you are differentfrom them.

Making friends

Do you think it would be easy for youto make friends with someone whowas very different from you? Read thefollowing story and think about this.

I had meant it as a joke. A jokemade up for a small ragged boy whosold newspapers at the Janpatcrossing at the busy intersection.Every time I cycled past he would runafter me, holding out the English paper

and screaming out the evening'sheadlines in a mixture of Hindi andEnglish words. This time, I stopped bythe pavement and asked for the Hindipaper. His mouth fell open.

"You mean you know Hindi?" heasked.

"Of course," I said as I paid for thepaper.

"Why? What did you think?"

He paused. "But you look so…soangrez," he said. "You mean you caneven read Hindi?"

"Of course I can," I said, this time alittle impatiently. "I can speak, read

and write Hindi. Hindi is one of thesubjects I study in school."

"Subjects?" he asked. How could Iexplain what a subject was to someonewho had never been to school? "Well, itis something…" I began, but the lightschanged, and the honking behind me grew a hundredfold and I let myselfbe pushed along with the rest of thetraffic.

Fill out the following informationabout yourselfWhen I go out I like wearing

At home I speak in

My favourite sport is

I like reading books about

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Understanding Diversity / 5

The next day he was there again,smiling at me and holding out a Hindipaper. "Bhaiyya," he said, "aap kaakhbaar. Ab Bathaaiye yeh subjectkya cheez hai?" the English wordsounded strange on his tongue. It sounded like its other meaning in English – to be ruled by someoneelse.

"Oh, it's just something to study," Isaid. And then because the red lighthad come on, I asked him, "Have youever been to school?" "Never," heanswered. And he added proudly, "Ibegan working when I was so high."He measured himself against mycycle-seat. "First my mother used tocome with me but I can do it all alone."

"Where is your mother now?" Iasked, but then the lights changed andI was off. I heard him yell fromsomewhere behind me, "She's inMeerut with…" The rest was drownedout.

"My name is Samir," he said thenext day. And very shyly he asked,"What's yours?" It was incredible. Mybicycle wobbled. "My name is Samirtoo," I said. "What?" His eyes lit up."Yes," I grinned at him. "It's anothername for Hanuman's father, youknow." "So now you are Samir Ek andI'm Samir Do," he said triumphantly."Something like that," I answered andthen I held out my hand. "Haath milao,Samir Do!" His hand nestled in minelike a little bird. I could still feel itswarmth as I cycled away.

The next day, he did not have hisusual smile for me. "There is trouble inMeerut," he said. "Many people arebeing killed there in the riots." I lookedat the headlines. Communal Riots, itblazed. "But Samir…" I began. "I'm aMuslim Samir," he said in answer."And all my people are in Meerut." Hiseyes filled with tears and when Itouched his shoulder, he would notlook up.

He was not at the crossing the dayafter. Neither the day after nor everagain. And no newspaper, in English orHindi, can tell me where my Samir D ohas gone.

(The Lights Changed by Poile Sengupta)

While Samir Ek is more familiarwith English, Samir Do speaks Hindi.Although they both are more at homein different languages they stillcommunicated with each other. Theymade the effort to do so because thiswas what was important to them.

Samir Ek and Samir Do also comefrom different religious and culturalbackgrounds. While Samir Ek is aHindu, Samir Do is a Muslim.Different religious and culturalbackgrounds such as these are anaspect of diversity.

Name three ways in which SamirEk and Samir Do were different?

Did these differences preventthem from becoming friends?

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6 / Social and Political Life

In addition to theirdiverse religious andcultural backgrounds,there are other waysin which Samir Ekand Samir Do aredifferent from eachother. For example,while Samir Ek goes toschool, Samir Do sellsnewspapers.

Samir Do did not have theopportunity to attend school. Perhapsyou've noticed that there are severalpeople in the area where you live whoare poor and who don't have enoughto eat or wear and sometimes not evena place to live. This difference is notthe same as the one we have seen

earlier. Here, we're talking not ofdifference but of inequality. Inequalitycomes about when a person does nothave the resources and opportunititesthat are available to other persons.

The caste system is anotherexample of inequality. According tothis, society was divided into differentgroups depending upon the work thatpeople did and they were supposed toremain in those groups. So if yourparents were potters you could onlybecome a potter, nothing else. Thissystem was considered irreversible.And because you were not supposedto change your profession, it was notconsidered necessary for you to knowanything more than what you neededin your profession. This created asituation of inequality. You will readmore about this and other inequalitiesin the following chapters.

What does diversity add to ourlives?

Just like Samir Ek and Samir Dobecame friends, you might havefriends who are very different fromyou. You have probably eatendifferent kinds of food in their homes,celebrated different festivals withthem, tried out the clothes they wear,and learnt some of their languagesas well.

DiscussWhy do you think Samir Do didnot attend school? Do you thinkit would have been easy for himto attend school if he wanted to?In your opinion is it a fairsituation that some children getto go to school and others don't?

Make a list of the festivals thatmight have been celebrated bythe two boys.

Samir Ek:

Samir Do:

Can you think of a situation inwhich you made friends withsomeone who was very differentfrom you? Write a story thatdescribes this.

Make a list of the food that youhave eaten from different parts ofIndia.

Make a list of the languages besidesyour mother tongue that you canspeak at least one or two words of.

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Understanding Diversity / 7

You probably like reading andhearing stories and adventures aboutdifferent animals, people and evenghosts. Perhaps you even enjoymaking up stories yourself ! Manyyoung people feel happy when theyread a good story because it givesthem lots of ideas to make up morestories. People who write stories gettheir ideas from all sorts of differentplaces – from books, and real life andfrom their imagination.

Some may have lived in forestsclose to animals and chosen to writeof their fights and friendships. Othersread real accounts of kings andqueens and wrote stories about loveand honour. Some dipped into theirown childhood memories of schooland friends and wrote stories ofadventure.

Imagineif all thestorytellersand writersthat youhave heardand read so

far were forced to live in aplace where all people worethe same two colours red andwhite, ate the same food(maybe potatoes!), took careof the same two animals, for example, the deer and the cat, and to entertainthemselves played snakesand ladders. What kind ofstories do you think theywould write?

DIVERSITY IN INDIA

India is a country of many diversities.We speak different languages, havevarious types of food, celebratedifferent festivals, practise differentreligions. But actually, if you thinkabout it, we do many things that aresimilar except that we do them indifferent ways.

How do we explain Diversity?

A little more than two hundred yearsago or long before the train,aeroplane, bus or car became a part ofour lives, people travelled from onepart of the world to another, in ships,on horses, on camels or on foot.

Imagine that you are a writer oran artist who lives in the placedescribed above. Either write astory or draw a picture of your life here.

Do you think you would enjoyliving in a place like this? List fivedifferent things that you wouldmiss the most if you lived here.

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8 / Social and Political Life

Through singing ahymn

Through signing aregister in the court

In Manipur womenwear a phanek

Different ways inwhich people greet

each other

Different ways inwhich people dress

Different ways inwhich people get

married

Different ways inwhich people pray

List at least three different ways in which people in India do the following.One of the possible answers has been provided for you already.

Different ways inwhich people cook

rice

By making Biriyaniwith meat orvegetables

In Jharkhand manyadivasis say "johar"to greet each other

Often, they went in search of newlands, or new places to settle in, or forpeople to trade with. And because ittook so long to travel, once they got toa place, people stayed there, often fora long time. Many others left theirhomes because there were faminesand drought and they could not getenough to eat. Some went in search ofwork while others left because therewas a war.

Sometimes, as they began to maketheir homes in new places, peoplebegan to change a little and at othertimes they managed to do things inthe old ways. So their languages, food,

music, religions became a mix of theold and the new, and out of this inter-mixing of cultures, came somethingnew and different.

The history of many places showsus how many different culturalinfluences have helped to shape lifeand culture there. Thus regionsbecame very diverse because of theirunique histories.

Similarly diversity also comesabout when people adapt their lives tothe geographical area in which theylive. For example living near the sea isquite different from living in amountainous area.

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Understanding Diversity / 9

Ladakh is a desert in themountains in the east of Jammuand Kashmir. Very littleagriculture is possible here sincethis region does not receive anyrain and is covered in snow for alarge part of the year. There arevery few trees that can grow in theregion. For drinking water, peopledepend on the melting snowduring the summer months.

People here keep sheep andgoats. The goats in this region arespecial because they producepashmina wool. This wool isprized and pashmina shawls costa lot of money. The people inLadakh carefully collect the woolof the goats and sell this totraders from Kashmir. Pashminashawls are chiefly woven inKashmir.

The people eat meat and milkproducts like cheese and butter.Each family owns some goats,cows and dzos (yak-cows).

Being a desert didnot mean thatLadakh did notattract its share oftraders. It wasconsidered a goodtrade route as ithad many passesthrough whichcaravans travelledto what is todaycalled Tibet. Thesecaravans carriedtextiles and spices,raw silk andcarpets.

Not only do people have differentclothing and eating habits, but even thekinds of work they do are different. Incities it is often easy to forget how closelypeople's lives are tied to their physicalsurroundings. This is because in the citypeople seldom grow their own vegetablesand grain. Instead they depend on themarket to buy all the food and othergoods that they need.

Let us try to understand what wemean when we say that historical andgeographical factors influence thediversity of a region. We can do this byreading about life in two different parts ofthe country, Kerala and Ladakh.

Look at the map of India in an Atlas and

locate Kerala and Ladakh. Can you list

three ways in which the different

geographical location of these two

regions would influence the following?

1. The food people eat:

2. The clothes they wear:

3. The work they do:

The dry barren landscape of the mountainous

desert of Ladakh.

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Buddhism reached Tibet via Ladakh. Ladakh isalso called Little Tibet. Islam was introduced inthis region more than four hundred years agoand there is a significant Muslim populationhere. Ladakh has a very rich oral tradition ofsongs and poems. Local versions of the Tibetannational epic the Kesar Saga are performed andsung by both Muslims and Buddhists.

Woman weaving a pashmina shawl

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Kerala is a state in the south-west corner of India. It issurrounded by the sea on oneside and hills on the other. Anumber of spices like pepper,

cloves and cardamoms are grown on thehills. It is spices that made this region

an attractive place for traders. Jewishand Arab traders were the first to comehere. The Apostle of Christ, St. Thomasis believed to have come here nearly

2000 years ago and he is credited withbringing Christianity to India.

Many Arab traders also came andsettled down here. Ibn Battuta, whotravelled here a little less than sevenhundred years ago, wrote a travelogue inwhich he describes the lives of Muslims

and says that they were a highly respected community. ThePortuguese discovered the searoute to India from Europe whenVasco da Gama landed with hisship here.

Because of all these varioushistorical influences, people inKerala practise different religionssuch as Judaism, Islam, Chris-tianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

The fishing nets used here lookexactly like the Chinese fishingnets and are called cheena-vala.

Even the utensil used for frying is calledthe cheenachatti, and it is believed thatthe word cheen could have come fromChina. The fertile land and climate aresuited to growing rice and a majority of

people here eat rice, fish andvegetables.

Chinese Fishing Nets

The boat race is an important part ofthe Onam festival celebrated in Kerala.

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Understanding Diversity / 11While Kerala and Ladakh are quite

different in terms of theirgeographical features, the history ofboth regions has seen similar culturalinfluences. Both regions wereinfluenced by Chinese and Arabtraders. It was the geography ofKerala which allowed for thecultivation of spices and the specialgeographical location of Ladakh andits wool that drew traders to theseregions. Thus history and geographyare often tied in the cultural life of aregion.

The influence of diverse cultures isnot merely a thing of the past. Ourpresent lives are all about movingfrom place to place for work and witheach move our cultural traditions andway of life slowly become part of thenew place we are in. Similarly in ourown neighbourhoods we live close topeople from several communities. Ourdaily lives are about the ways inwhich we do things together and hearstories about each other's lives,customs and traditions.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

India's diversity has always beenrecognised as a source of its strength.When the British ruled India, womenand men from different cultural,religious and regional backgroundscame together to oppose them. India'sfreedom movement had thousands ofpeople of different backgrounds in it.They worked together to decide jointactions, they went to jail together, andthey found different ways to opposethe British. Interestingly the British

thought they could divide Indiansbecause they were so different, andthen continue to rule them. But thepeople showed how they could bedifferent and yet be united in theirbattle against the British.

Don't forget the days of blood, O friend

In the midst of your happiness rememberto shed a tear for us

The hunter has torn away every singleflower

Do plant a flower in the desert gardendear friend

Having fallen to bullets we slept inJallianwala Bagh

Do light a lamp on this lonely grave

O friend

The blood of Hindus and Muslims flowstogether today

Do soak your robe in this river of blooddear friend

Some rot in jails while others lie in theirgraves

Do shed a few tears for them O friend.

Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA)

This song was sung after theJallianwala Bagh massacre inAmritsar in which a British generalopened fire on a large group ofunarmed, peaceful people killingmany and wounding even more. Menand women, Hindus, Sikhs andMuslims, rich and poor had gatheredto protest against the British. Thissong was composed and sung to honour the memory of those brave people.

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QUESTIONS

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

2. What do you think living in India with its rich heritage of diversityadds to your life?

3. Do you think the term "unity in diversity" is an appropriate term todescribe India? What do you think Nehru is trying to say aboutIndian unity in the sentence quoted above from his book TheDiscovery of India?

4. Underline the line in the poem sung after the Jallianwala Baghmassacre, which according to you, reflects India's essential unity.

5. Choose another region in India and do a similar study of thehistorical and geographical factors that influence the diversity foundthere. Are these historical and geographical factors connected toeach other? How?

Songs and symbols that emergedduring the freedom struggle serve as aconstant reminder of our country'srich tradition of respect for diversity.Do you know the story of the Indianflag? It was used as a symbol ofprotest against the British by peopleeverywhere.

In his book TheDiscovery of IndiaJawaharlal Nehru saysthat Indian unity is notsomething imposedfrom the outside butrather, "It wassomething deeper andwithin its fold, thewidest tolerance ofbelief and custom waspractised and everyvariety acknowledgedand even encouraged."It was Nehru, who

coined the phrase, "unity in diversity"to describe the country.

India's national anthem,composed by RabindranathTagore, is another expressionof the unity of India. In whatway does the nationalanthem describe this unity?

Pt. Nehru delivering an Independence Day speech

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