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Multicultural emphasises the importance of cultural diversity. It recognises the dignity and importance of cultural distinctiveness. It reiterates that cultural differences are natural phenomena. Cultural diversity, diverse ideas, perspectives and beliefs enhance our vision of a better society. Multiculturalism stands for heterogeneity and diversity. It is an inclusive process in which all cultures are valued.
In India, immigration and multiculturalism are as old as recorded history. Since time immemorial, wave after wave of ethnically and culturally diverse people have poured into India, settled here, and assimilated into its mosaic. Each community, while interacting and being influenced by the others, retained its own identity. customs, beliefs and ways of life. It has truly been said that Indian culture is a 'culture of cultures', like a beehive of interlocking cells.
Hinduism has played a seminal role in shaping the Indian mind and character. It has dogma, no prophet, no single sacred book. It believes in freedom of thought and expression. It encompasses different forms of belief: monotheism, polytheism, agnosticism as well as atheism. Hinduism is also the foundation of a general sprit of tolerance and acceptance of the 'other', the belief that different paths can lead to the same goal. Hinduism's flexibility has endowed Indian civilisation with a unique resilience and power of absorptive survival.
The 700 years of Muslim rule from the 11-12th century bequeathed a mixed legacy. Politically, Islam in India represented subjugation. But culturally, it generated outstanding creative achievement and synthesis. The centuries of Muslim rule impacted all aspects of Indian life producing a composite Indi-Islamic culture.
British colonial rule replaced Muslim rule, adding one more layer to India's plural personality. India's exposure to the West was both debilitating and nourishing. On the one hand, colonial rule devalued Indian civilisation by claiming and justifying 'civilising mission' of British. On the other hand, the work of great European Ideologists helped India rediscover her classical literature, her forgotten wisdom and values.
It is striking how the intellectual journey of the leaders of the Indian renaissance went from India to the the West, before returning to India with a new-found sense of Indianness. All of them represented a mingling of East and West, a synthesis of European and Indian thought.
This was the background to the emergence of an independent, democratic India in 1947, after the bloodbath of Partition. We are the most complex and diverse society on earth. Today's India has over a billion Hindus, 150 million Muslims, 24 million Christians and 24 million Sikhs, apart from several smaller but important denominations. In addition to English and Hindi, we speak more than 20 major languages and some 22,000 dialects. Each religion is further sliced and diced by caste, sub-caste and region. There are also thousands of tribal groups with distinct ethnic and cultural identities. Each of India's states has its own centuries-old flourishing culture, with further internal diversions.