Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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diverse. What does diversity add to our lives? How
did India become like this? Are all kinds of difference
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a part of diversity? Can diversity also be a part of
unity? Read this chapter to find some answers.
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"Why? What did you think?"
He paused. "But you look so…so
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angrez," he said. "You mean you can
even read Hindi?"
Now ask your teacher to help you
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check, how many of you have similar
answers. Is there anyone whose list little impatiently. "I can speak, read
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matches yours exactly? Probably not.
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But many of you may have similar
answers. How many like reading the
same kind of books? How many
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Making friends
Do you think it would be easy for you and write Hindi. Hindi is one of the
to make friends with someone who subjects I study in school."
was very different from you? Read the
following story and think about this. "Subjects?" he asked. How could I
explain what a subject was to someone
I had meant it as a joke. A joke who had never been to school? "Well, it
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made up for a small ragged boy who is something…" I began, but the lights
sold newspapers at the Janpat changed, and the honking behind me
crossing at the busy intersection. grew a hundredfold and I let myself be
Every time I cycled past he would run pushed along with the rest of the
after me, holding out the English paper traffic.
Understanding Diversity /5
The next day he was there again, The next day, he did not have his
smiling at me and holding out a Hindi usual smile for me. "There is trouble in
paper. "Bhaiyya," he said, "aap ka Meerut," he said. "Many people are
akhbaar. Ab Bathaaiye yeh subject being killed there in the riots." I looked
kya cheez hai?" the English word at the headlines. Communal Riots, it
sounded strange on his tongue. blazed. "But Samir…" I began. "I'm a
It sounded like its other meaning Muslim Samir," he said in answer.
in English – to be ruled by someone "And all my people are in Meerut." His
else. eyes filled with tears and when I
"Oh, it's just something to study," I touched his shoulder, he would not
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said. And then because the red light look up.
had come on, I asked him, "Have you He was not at the crossing the day
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ever been to school?" "Never," he after. Neither the day after nor ever
answered. And he added proudly, "I again. And no newspaper, in English or
began working when I was so high."
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He measured himself against my has gone.
cycle-seat. "First my mother used to
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(The Lights Changed by Poile Sengupta)
come with me but I can do it all alone."
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"Where is your mother now?" I
asked, but then the lights changed and
I was off. I heard him yell from
Name three ways in which Samir
Ek and Samir Do were different?
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out.
"My name is Samir," he said the While Samir Ek is more familiar
next day. And very shyly he asked, with English, Samir Do speaks Hindi.
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"What's yours?" It was incredible. My Although they both are more at home
bicycle wobbled. "My name is Samir in different languages they still
too," I said. "What?" His eyes lit up. communicated with each other. They
"Yes," I grinned at him. "It's another made the effort to do so because this
name for Hanuman's father, you was what was important to them.
know." "So now you are Samir Ek and Samir Ek and Samir Do also come
I'm Samir Do," he said triumphantly. from different religious and cultural
"Something like that," I answered and backgrounds. While Samir Ek is a
then I held out my hand. "Haath milao, Hindu, Samir Do is a Muslim.
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Samir Do!" His hand nestled in mine Different religious and cultural
like a little bird. I could still feel its backgrounds such as these are an
warmth as I cycled away. aspect of diversity.
6 / Social and Political Life
earlier. Here, we're talking not of
Make a list of the festivals that difference but of inequality. Inequality
might have been celebrated by comes about when a person does not
the two boys. have the resources and opportunitites
Samir Ek: that are available to other persons.
Samir Do: The caste system is another
Can you think of a situation in example of inequality. According to
which you made friends with this, society was divided into different
someone who was very different groups depending upon the work that
from you? Write a story that people did and they were supposed to
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describes this. remain in those groups. So if your
parents were potters you could only
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In addition to their become a potter, nothing else. This
diverse religious and system was considered irreversible.
cultural backgrounds,
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there are other ways to change your profession, it was not
in which Samir Ek
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considered necessary for you to know
and Samir Do are
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anything more than what you needed
different from each in your profession. This created a
other. For example, situation of inequality. You will read
while Samir Ek goes to more about this and other inequalities
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Discuss lives?
Why do you think Samir Do did Just like Samir Ek and Samir Do
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not attend school? Do you think became friends, you might have
it would have been easy for him friends who are very different from
to attend school if he wanted to? you. You have probably eaten
In your opinion is it a fair
different kinds of food in their homes,
situation that some children get
celebrated different festivals with
to go to school and others don't?
them, tried out the clothes they wear,
and learnt some of their languages
Samir Do did not have the as well.
opportunity to attend school. Perhaps
Make a list of the food that you
you've noticed that there are several
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stories do you think they
would write?
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You probably like reading and
hearing stories and adventures about Imagine that you are a writer or
different animals, people and even an artist who lives in the place
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ghosts. Perhaps you even enjoy
making up stories yourself ! Many story or draw a picture of your
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life here.
young people feel happy when they
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read a good story because it gives
them lots of ideas to make up more
stories. People who write stories get
Do you think you would enjoy
living in a place like this? List five
different things that you would
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their ideas from all sorts of different miss the most if you lived here.
places – from books, and real life and
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List at least three different ways in which people in India do the following.
One of the possible answers has been provided for you already.
Different ways in
Through signing a
which people get
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register in the court
married
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Different ways in In Manipur women
which people dress wear a fanek
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Different ways in In Jharkhand many
which people greet adivasis say "johar"
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each other
Often, they went in search of new music, religions became a mix of the
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lands, or new places to settle in, or for old and the new, and out of this inter-
people to trade with. And because it mixing of cultures, came something
took so long to travel, once they got to new and different.
a place, people stayed there, often for The history of many places shows
a long time. Many others left their us how many different cultural
homes because there were famines influences have helped to shape life
and drought and they could not get and culture there. Thus regions
enough to eat. Some went in search of became very diverse because of their
work while others left because there unique histories.
was a war. Similarly diversity also comes
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Sometimes, as they began to make about when people adapt their lives to
their homes in new places, people the geographical area in which they
began to change a little and at other live. For example living near the sea is
times they managed to do things in quite different from living in a
the old ways. So their languages, food, mountainous area.
Understanding Diversity /9
Not only do people have different
Ladakh is a desert in the
clothing and eating habits, but even the
mountains in the eastern part of
kinds of work they do are different. In Jammu and Kashmir. Very little
cities it is often easy to forget how closely agriculture is possible here since
people's lives are tied to their physical this region does not receive any
surroundings. This is because in the city rain and is covered in snow for a
people seldom grow their own vegetables large part of the year. There are
and grain. Instead they depend on the very few trees that can grow in the
market to buy all the food and other region. For drinking water, people
goods that they need. depend on the melting snow
during the summer months.
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Let us try to understand what we
People here keep sheep and
mean when we say that historical and
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the sheep in this region are
geographical factors influence the special because they produce
diversity of a region. We can do this by pashmina wool. This wool is
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reading about life in two different parts of prized and pashmina shawls cost
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the country, Kerala and Ladakh. a lot of money. The people in
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Ladakh carefully collect the wool
Look at the map of India in an Atlas and
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of the sheep and sell this to
locate Kerala and Ladakh. Can you list traders from Kashmir. Pashmina
three ways in which the different shawls are chiefly woven in
geographical location of these two Kashmir.
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caravans carried
textiles and spices,
raw silk and
carpets.
The dry barren landscape of the mountainous
desert of Ladakh.
10 / Social and Political Life
Kerala is a state in the south- 2000 years ago and he is credited with
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west corner of India. It is bringing Christianity to India.
surrounded by the sea on one Many Arab traders also came and
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side and hills on the other. A settled down here. Ibn Battuta, who
number of spices like pepper, travelled here a little less than seven
cloves and cardamoms are grown on the hundred years ago, wrote a travelogue in
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hills. It is spices that made this region which he describes the lives of Muslims
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and says that they were a
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highly respected community. The
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Portuguese discovered the sea
route to India from Europe when
Vasco da Gama landed with his
ship here.
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regions. Thus history and geography The hunter has torn away every single
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are often tied in the cultural life of a flower
region. Do plant a flower in the desert garden
dear friend
The influence of diverse cultures is
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not merely a thing of the past. Our
Jallianwala Bagh
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present lives are all about moving
Do light a lamp on this lonely grave
from place to place for work and with
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each move our cultural traditions and
way of life slowly become part of the
new place we are in. Similarly in our
O friend
The blood of Hindus and Muslims flows
together today
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own neighbourhoods we live close to Do soak your robe in this river of blood
people from several communities. Our dear friend
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daily lives are about the ways in Some rot in jails while others lie in their
which we do things together and hear graves
stories about each other's lives, Do shed a few tears for them O friend.
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people of different backgrounds in it. Muslims, rich and poor had gathered
They worked together to decide joint to protest against the British. This
actions, they went to jail together, and song was composed and sung
they found different ways to oppose to honour the memory of those
the British. Interestingly the British brave people.
12 / Social and Political Life
In his book The
Discovery of India
Jawaharlal Nehru says
that Indian unity is not
something imposed
from the outside but
rather, "It was
something deeper and
within its fold, the
widest tolerance of
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belief and custom was
practised and every
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variety acknowledged
and even encouraged."
It was Nehru, who
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Pt. Nehru delivering an Independence Day speech
coined the phrase, "unity in diversity"
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Songs and symbols that emerged
to describe the country.
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during the freedom struggle serve as a
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constant reminder of our country's India's national anthem,
rich tradition of respect for diversity. composed by Rabindranath
Do you know the story of the Indian Tagore, is another expression
of the unity of India. In what
flag? It was used as a symbol of
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QUESTIONS
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2. What do you think living in India with its rich heritage of diversity
adds to your life?
4. Underline the line in the poem sung after the Jallianwala Bagh
massacre, which according to you, reflects India's essential unity.