Perusing through some of my favourite genre of fantasy and science fiction,  I came across the interesting trilogy- Divergent by Veronica Roth. Ignoring the seemingly boring moments of romance between the 2 main protagonists,  it brings forward an interesting concept of dividing the human civilization into factions according to the facets displayed by each person.  Without giving much away, the main story revolved around the fear each faction had of the group of people who displayed traits of more than one faction.
The concept brings out something which all the Indians can relate to.  We may call ourselves diverse,  but the underlying thread of unity is a thick veil of facade held together by a thin undercurrent of national integration. Geographically, culturally and even genetically we are different.  Each state has its own distinct culture that the other states are blissfully ignorant of. Part of this is due to the fact that historically, our country has been the bedrock of invasions where, with each invasion,  a foreign power displaces an established civilization. Contrast the birth of our country with those of European or American history. The seeming variety of invaders that we had makes uniformity an impossibility without large scale genocide by which I mean wiping out the entire civilization without actually displacing it.
We survived history, but it remains to be seen if we can survive the future. In a country without any evident majority, we must accept that we are different, yet we must also accept that the fragile confedaration foundations on which our nation is built will never survive another invasion. We have too much variety as we stand now, and our best bet is to flourish and let others flourish, welcome different factions and mix to lead to an amalgamation of a uniform civilization and be tolerant. But let time take its course. Such a unification will be spectacularly difficult. In the meantime, accept the difference, but respect it as well. Prepare to discard traditions which are important, but impractical, obsolete and irrelevant. Staying together is the best chance, not to survive, but to flourish because mediocrity might not just be good enough and we open ourselves to another potential invasion. And in the dynamics of the modern world, it’s not just normal warfare. It’s economic and diplomatic warfare, political maneuvers and others the likes of which we have never seen before. Accept the difference,  be proud of it, love thy neighbors and unite. Time to open our eyes and see the big picture beyond the obvious.