Economic and Political Weekly
March 3, 2007
In the debate about political unity and cultural
diversity in India, the representation of the
past often was (and is) the main battlefield.
While secularists invoke the Indian tradition
of toleration thus pleading for a multicultural
India, communalists point to the long experience
of religious strife and conclude the necessity
of territorial demarcation. Some post-colonial
critics even view the very reliance on history
as the basic problem. The frequent instances
of violence against minorities in connection
with disputes over the past give cause to reconsider
the role of history in the emergence of the
nation state in India. Those obsessed with origin
in their idea of the nation assume no perspective
of change that would allow heterogeneous elements
to merge. Secularists often bring into play
only a singular, particular perspective, in
which other possible perspectives are neglected.
By inserting both the unifying model of the
nation state and the diversity of cultural and
social forms of life into an overarching perspective
of temporal change, a modern form of unity canbe
accomplished that may be called unity in diversity.
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2007&leaf=03&filename=11139&filetype=pdf
