Unity Is Strength: A gentle reminder to Indians

Our national aim must be to transform India from a backward country with huge poverty, unemployment, child malnourishment, lack of healthcare and good education for our masses, etc to a modern, highly industrialised, and prosperous country with its people enjoying a high standard of living.

But this is impossible unless we unite. At present we are divided, and our enemies ( both internal and external ), taking advantage of our disunity, incite us to fight with each other, which foolishly we often do.

India is a country with tremendous diversity, with many religions, castes, languages, races etc, which is because we are broadly a country of immigrants, like North America ( see my article ‘What is India’ on my blog Satyam Bruyat ).

This diversity can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. It has till now often been a bad thing because our enemies ( both external and internal ) take advantage of this to make us fight with each other. As Bheeshma Pitamah said in his upadesh to Yudhishthir ( in the Shantiparva of Mahabharat ) :

“Nations perish only because of internal discord between the people
Therefore a wise ruler always seeks to maintain good relations between the people
And crushes leaders of factions who seek to divide the people.” ( Shantiparva chapters 107/108 shloka 14/15 ) The same thing was said by Chanakya in his Arthashastra.

But diversity can also be a good thing. America too, like India, was composed of different kinds of immigrants from different countries, but this diversity enabled it to rapidly progress and become the foremost country in the world. This was because it accumulated the wisdom of different people, and developed tolerance towards different faiths and beliefs.
So we have to convert the diversity of India from a bad thing to a good thing, just as the Americans ( who are broadly a country of immigrants like us ) did. Only by doing so and uniting can we make the great historical transformation which will lift up India into the ranks of the highly developed and prosperous countries.