Interrogating ‘Unity in Diversity’ : Voices from India’s Ancient Texts

The problem – which, if I am allowed to call it a ‘historian’s puzzle’ (as it appears as a contradiction in terms) – has come to me in the form of the expression ‘Unity in Diversity’; it is an expression with which we all are familiar, and which, for long, has been taken to be an apt characterisation of what India represents. This is an expression inherited from our predecessors and embellished by the elected representatives of our country, with which our introduction to our own country begins at an early age, and this is an image of the country that we carry with us throughout our lives.