Bhagwat says India doesn’t need homogeneity for unity

On the occasion, Bhagwat said that homogeneity in language, culture or religion was never the base for the formation of India.

“There are over 3,800 dialects spoken in India, every language is spoken in different ways here but the emotion remains the same. Like Lord Jagannath who has no other equal in the world, India is also unique. In the rest of the world, people say that if you have to be united as one, then you have to be homogenous. However, regarding Bharatvarsha, even ancient texts say that to be one, you don’t have to be homogenous because here in India, one has been diversified into many. We usually say unity in diversity but here I would like to add that we have diversities of unity in India,” said Bhagwat.

The RSS chief also spoke about the concept of nation state and how India has always rejected it.

“When we say that India is a nation, we have to see how nations were formed. Nations were formed on an man-made basis. Nations were made for security reasons. People thought that if we enterprise together, then we will attain development faster. It was made for selfish reasons of man and community… At many places, languages, religion, sect, financial vision were taken as bases to form nations. In any group, there cannot be a single view and if you form a group without making any base then people won’t accept it. Therefore, the concept of nation state as a prosecuting body was introduced in order for people to join groups,” he said.

“However this was not possible in India because here we have assembled under emotion. When the whole world had reached the peak of materialistic pleasure, still they couldn’t find the solution. They had the pleasures of body, mind and soul yet there is a sense of sadness in them,” the RSS chief added.

Bhagwat also spoke on the concept of “motherland”.

“When we say that we consider this land as our mother, then it is an emotion. Many people say that if you consider cow as your mother then a bull must be your father. But we are speaking about emotions here. The belief that all of the surroundings belong to me and have nurtured me, therefore out of gratitude, we consider rivers as mother, cows as mother and pray to mountains and trees. Our India is made up of such emotions,” said Bhagwat.