Unity in Diversity, or 'Many in the One' | CBSE Class 6 History Notes

This note covers India's shared ways of life and regional variety, languages and communities, common foods, the sari and other textiles, harvest festivals, the Pañchatantra stories, the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata, and the connections between regional and community traditions.

What is the background to India's unity in diversity?

Diversity means variety, while unity means the connections that hold different forms together. India's diversity includes differences in food, clothing, languages, festivals and customs. Unity in diversity means recognising shared features within this variety. The expression ‘Many in the One’ conveys this relationship.

A train journey through India brings changing landscapes, meaning the visible features of an area of land. It also brings changing foods and clothes. Travellers hear different languages and see different scripts, the signs used to write languages. Some are familiar, while others are unfamiliar.

Even within a person's own region, people often encounter others whose customs and traditions come from different parts of India. Diversity is therefore something people can experience nearby as well as during long journeys. It is usually the first feature that strikes visitors to India.

India has over 1.4 billion inhabitants, meaning people living in a place, about 18 percent of the world's population. With such a large population, the variety of communities and ways of life is not surprising.

What did the People of India project record?

The People of India project was a large survey of communities carried out by the Anthropological Survey of India, a national organisation, in the late twentieth century. A survey gathers information about its subject. This project studied communities across all the States of India.

The project also observed that many Indians may be called migrants. Here, this means people who do not live near their birthplace or with their original community. The description connects diversity with where people live as well as with the languages they speak.

Vincent Smith, a British historian, raised the difficulty of writing India's history amid such variety more than a century ago. A historian studies and writes about the past. His answer was that India combines diversity with unity.

Definition: Unity in diversity is the presence of shared features and connections within varied ways of life. Recognising unity does not require overlooking the variety of languages, clothes, foods, stories or celebrations.

The important question is therefore how the different forms are connected. Food, clothing, festivals and literature offer ways to explore that question. Each reveals something shared alongside the many ways in which people express it.

How can we compare unity and diversity in Indian food?

Ingredients are the foods or substances combined to make a dish. India has a vast variety of dishes and preparations, yet certain food grains are common to almost every part of the country. Shared ingredients can be combined in many ways.

These grains include cereals, such as rice, barley and wheat; millets, such as pearl millet, sorghum and finger millet; and pulses, a category of crops including beans, peas and lentils. Dals and grams belong to the pulse examples used in everyday food.

Such grains are called staple grains because they provide the basic food for most Indians. The words ‘most Indians’ and ‘almost every part’ matter: shared food patterns allow for variety among people and places.

Where is the unity, and where is the variety?

The shared grains and spices, ingredients used to flavour food, show unity. Diversity appears in the combinations used to prepare dishes. The same ingredients can be brought together in different ways, producing a great variety of food.

The map of India contains labelled pictures of grains and pulses, including rice, rajma, maize and several dals. It is marked ‘Not to scale’. It shows a few examples from different regions.

See Fig. 8.1 in your NCERT textbook

A useful way to explore this connection is to list the grains and spices used at home, then compare the ingredients with dishes from other regions. Another activity is to choose one vegetable and consider how many different dishes can be prepared with it.

In both activities, the question is about the relationship between an ingredient and its uses. Finding a shared ingredient explains the common element; finding several preparations explains the variety. The conclusion is that common foods can support many different regional expressions.

Why does the sari illustrate ‘Many in the One’?

A sari is a plain length of cloth worn as a dress in most parts of India. It is unstitched, meaning that it has no stitches. This common form appears in hundreds of varieties, making the sari a clear example of unity in diversity.

Every region and community has developed its own styles of clothing. Yet some traditional dresses share a common form even when their materials differ. With the sari, a length of cloth remains the common element through differences in fabric, design, colour and ways of wearing it.

How do fabric and design vary?

Saris are made mostly from cotton or silk, although synthetic, meaning artificial rather than natural, fabrics are also used nowadays. Banarasi, Kanjivaram, Paithani, Patan Patola, Muga and Mysore are examples of famous silk saris. There are many more kinds of cotton saris.

Weaving means forming cloth by interlacing threads of yarn. Different methods of weaving and designing produce different saris. Some designs are made as part of the cloth itself; others are printed on it after the cloth has been woven.

Colours add further variety. A pigment is a substance that gives something a particular colour when present in it or added to it. Many kinds of pigments produce the sari's endless colour variations.

Photograph: Traditional textile specimens (NCERT Class 6 Figure 8.3). The photograph shows lengths of patterned cloth placed side by side. Their colours and repeated designs differ. It provides a visual example of variety within Indian textiles, or cloth materials.

How do ways of wearing it vary?

Draping means arranging the cloth on the body. Ways of draping the sari vary between regions and communities. New ways are still being invented. The garment has a shared identity even when the way it is arranged changes.

The example brings the two parts of the idea together. Calling it a sari identifies the common form. Describing its fabric, design and draping identifies the many forms that this shared garment takes. Its variety remains part of its identity.

What do the history and uses of textiles reveal?

The sari has a long history. A stone relief from Vaiśhali, in present-day Bihar, shows a woman wearing a sari. A relief is a design standing out from the surface of a panel, which can be made of stone, wood, ceramic or another material.

The Vaiśhali relief goes back a few centuries BCE, meaning Before Common Era. This expression is used for years before the conventional date for the birth of Jesus. The date of the relief gives evidence of the sari's long history.

Photograph: Woman in a sari (NCERT Class 6 Figure 8.2). The photograph shows a stone relief with a standing female figure and visible folds in her clothing. The object comes from Vaiśhali, now in Bihar.

How did Indian cotton reach Europe?

For a very long time India produced the world's finest cotton. Indian textiles were exported, meaning produced in one country and sold in another, as far away as Europe. One especially popular product was chintz, a type of printed cotton cloth.

Chintz became so popular in seventeenth-century Europe that sales of some European dresses fell sharply. England and France eventually banned its import, or purchase from another country, to protect their own products. This connects an Indian textile with changes in markets beyond India.

What uses can a single piece of cloth have?

Several travellers in past centuries admired the sari's simplicity, economy and varied ways of being worn. Women often use it for purposes beyond clothing. These uses add another kind of variety to a garment whose basic form is simple.

Photographs: Uses of the sari (NCERT Class 6 Figure 8.4). The six photographs from south India show cloth holding a baby while suspended from a branch, stretched across water, supporting a pot on a woman's head, receiving grain, shielding a woman's face, and spread beneath a resting woman.

The photographs show practical uses of cloth rather than six different kinds of dress. Together with the sari's different fabrics and designs, they help explain how one familiar object can take many forms and serve varied purposes.

The old relief and the everyday photographs contribute different evidence. One shows an older representation of the garment; the others show uses of cloth in daily life. Both help connect the sari's common form with the variety of its expressions.

How do harvest festivals express a shared connection?

India has an immense variety of festivals. A few common ones are celebrated across the country almost at the same time, although their names differ. Shared timing and different names provide another example of unity in diversity.

Makara Sankrānti marks the beginning of the harvest season, the period when crops are gathered, in many parts of India on or around January 14. Similar festivals take place across India about the same date.

Note: Keep the timing as ‘on or around January 14’ and the extent as ‘many parts of India’. The example concerns similar festivals about the same date, with different names across the country.

What names appear in the festival map?

A map of India places festival names beside small illustrations. Labels include Maghi/Lohri, Uttarayan, Magh Bihu, Poush Songkranti, Pedda Panduga and Pongal. The map is marked ‘Not to scale’.

See Fig. 8.5 in your NCERT textbook

The complete set of labels offers a way to observe this variety without treating the names as unrelated examples. Several names resemble one another, while others are quite different. Their placement across the map draws attention to the spread of similar celebrations.

• Shishur Saenkraat; Maghi/Lohri; Uttarayan.
• Khichdi Parv; Makar Sankraat; Makar Sankranti.
• Magh Bihu; Poush Songkranti; Makara Sankranti.
• Makara Sankramana; Makara Vilakku; Pedda Panduga; Pongal.

How should the example be explained?

Begin with the shared seasonal connection: the start of the harvest season in many parts of India. Then identify the variety of names used for similar festivals. Finally, connect the two observations: a shared seasonal connection can have many regional expressions.

The shared time of celebration helps us recognise the connection. The different names help us recognise diversity. Both observations belong in the explanation, just as shared ingredients and varied dishes belong together when explaining food traditions.

A local exploration can begin with a favourite festival and how it is celebrated. The next step is to find whether a similar celebration exists elsewhere under another name. This approach links a familiar experience to the broader question of unity within variety.

How did the Pañchatantra become one collection with many forms?

Indian literature, meaning the body of stories and other literary works, offers another example of unity in diversity. Indian literatures are extremely varied and among the world's most abundant. Despite differences in language and technique, they have shared important themes and concerns over centuries.

The Pañchatantra is a collection of stories in which animals are the main characters. These stories teach important life skills, abilities useful in everyday life. Its original Sanskrit text is at least 2,200 years old, and its stories have been adapted in almost every Indian language.

What changes when a story is adapted?

In this context, an adaptation is a version of a story made in another form or language. The Pañchatantra illustrates how stories from one collection can appear in many versions. The shared collection connects these versions despite differences in their expression.

The stories travelled well beyond India. They reached Southeast Asia, the Arab world and Europe, inspiring new collections of stories along the way. Their spread therefore includes both versions within India and connections with storytelling outside India.

It is estimated that about 200 adaptations exist in more than 50 languages. These are qualified figures: ‘about’ signals an estimate, while ‘more than’ signals that the number exceeds the stated value. They should be retained when describing the collection's spread.

Likewise, ‘at least 2,200 years old’ gives a minimum age for the original text. The statement about Indian languages is ‘almost every’, preserving the scope of the claim. Together, these details convey an extensive spread without replacing estimates with exact totals.

The main connection is between a shared collection and the many forms in which its stories live. A common body of stories can inspire different versions and new collections, while continuing to teach life skills through animal characters.

What shared concerns connect the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata?

An epic is a long poem generally narrating the adventures of heroes and other great figures of the past. The Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are India's two Sanskrit epics. Their original versions together might fill some 7,000 pages.

Both tell of heroes struggling to re-establish dharma, here connected with doing what is right. Their stories contain many shorter stories that explore values and repeatedly raise questions about right and wrong. Shared concerns therefore run through their many adventures.

What is the central conflict in each epic?

The two central conflicts are different, but both belong to stories concerned with dharma. The shorter stories within the epics widen their exploration of values. Thinking about the characters' struggles therefore involves considering what is right and what is wrong.

How have the epics spread?

For more than two millenniums, meaning periods of a thousand years each, the epics have been translated or adapted into regional literatures within India and beyond. A translation carries a text into another language. An adaptation may also give it a different form.

There are also countless folk versions, forms preserved in community traditions. Folklore includes traditional beliefs, customs and stories passed through generations by word of mouth. A survey in Tamil Nadu alone counted about a hundred Mahābhārata versions surviving in folklore forms.

The painting contains several groups of figures in coloured areas, with buildings, animals and figures carrying bows. This is Yuddha Kanda of Ramayana, by Sahibdin, Mewar, 1652, held at the India Office Library, London.

See Fig. 8.6 in your NCERT textbook

The painting illustrates one way an epic can be expressed through art. Translations, adaptations, folk versions and paintings show that the stories have circulated in different forms. The same epics can connect people who encounter them through different languages or ways of telling stories.

Over the centuries, perhaps more than any other texts, these two epics created a dense web of cultural interactions across India and many parts of Asia. ‘Perhaps’ preserves the qualified nature of this comparison.

How do different groups participate in a shared cultural legacy?

A cultural legacy is what earlier generations pass on through valued traditions and works. Many communities have their own versions of the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. They also preserve legends, traditional stories connecting their own history with the epics.

Oral traditions are teachings or practices passed on through everyday practice without written texts. They allow epic stories and local connections to be transmitted from one generation to another. ‘Transmitted’ means passed on between people or places.

What do regional storytelling traditions preserve?

The many folk versions in Tamil Nadu show how an epic can take different forms within a single region. About a hundred Mahābhārata versions were counted there in folklore forms. This regional variety belongs to the wider spread of the epic across India.

A regional version can share the epic's heroes and concerns while being part of a community's own storytelling. The connection between a widespread story and its local forms helps explain how cultural unity can exist alongside a great variety of expression.

How do tribal communities connect with the epics?

Tribal communities include the Bhils, Gonds and Mundas. There are many definitions of a tribe. Today, it is usually understood as families or clans sharing common descent, culture and language, living closely together under a chief and holding no private property.

Many tribal communities preserve their own epic versions and legends. Most tribes of India's northeast and Himalayan regions, including Kashmir, have had a version of one or the other epic, or both. These adaptations are transmitted orally.

The accompanying legends tell of epic heroes visiting the communities' regions. They generally involve any or all of the five Pāṇḍavas and their wife Draupadī, but sometimes also Duryodhana, the Pāṇḍavas' cousin and adversary, meaning opponent.

What do the Irula tribals commemorate?

In a forest of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, a carved stone called ‘Pañcha Pāṇḍavar’ depicts the five Pāṇḍava brothers. Irula tribals maintain the shrine, a sacred place, containing it to commemorate, or mark the memory of, the Pāṇḍavas' passing through the area.

Photograph: Pañcha Pāṇḍavar carved stone (NCERT Class 6 Figure 8.7). The photograph shows a weathered stone depicting the five Pāṇḍava brothers. Its shrine in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, is maintained by Irula tribals.

K.S. Singh, who directed the People of India project, observed the widespread local traditions about visits by the Pāṇḍavas. These accounts belong to folklore. Their importance here is the connection they create between shared epic heroes and the traditions of particular places.

Indian culture celebrates diversity as an enrichment, meaning an increase in quality or value, while recognising the unity that nourishes it. Food, dress, festivals and stories show this relationship repeatedly: shared features support many expressions, and the variety adds richness to cultural life.

Glossary

• Unity in diversity — Shared features and connections that exist within varied languages, foods, clothes, celebrations and stories.
• Migrant — Here, a person not living near their birthplace or with their original community.
• Staple grains — Grains providing the basic food for most Indians, including cereals, millets and pulses.
• Pulses — A category of crops that includes beans, peas and lentils, also called dal.
• Sari — A plain length of unstitched cloth worn as a dress in most parts of India.
• Weaving — The formation of cloth by interlacing threads of yarn with one another.
• Pigment — A substance that gives a material colour when present in it or added to it.
• Relief — A design projecting from a panel's surface, made of stone, wood, ceramic or another material.
• Chintz — A type of printed cotton cloth from India that became popular in seventeenth-century Europe.
• Pañchatantra — A collection of stories with animal main characters that teaches important life skills.
• Epic — A long poem generally recounting adventures of heroes and other great figures from the past.
• Folklore — Community beliefs, customs and stories passed between generations by word of mouth.
• Oral tradition — Teaching or practice passed on through everyday practice without depending on written texts.
• Commemorate — To mark the memory of someone or something, often through a ceremony.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Unity means that everyone follows the same way of life. Correct: Unity in diversity recognises shared features while allowing variety in food, clothing, language, festivals and stories.
• Misconception: The People of India project counted 325 scripts and 25 languages. Correct: Its survey of 4,635 communities counted 325 languages using 25 scripts.
• Misconception: Staple grains are eaten in exactly the same way throughout India. Correct: Common grains provide a shared base, while different combinations of ingredients produce varied dishes.
• Misconception: Every sari is made of silk and worn in one way. Correct: Saris are mostly cotton or silk, with synthetic fabrics also used, and draping varies between regions and communities.
• Misconception: All harvest festivals occur exactly on January 14 under one name. Correct: Makara Sankrānti marks the harvest season's beginning in many parts of India on or around January 14; similar festivals have different names.
• Misconception: Exactly 200 Pañchatantra adaptations exist in exactly 50 languages. Correct: The estimate is about 200 adaptations in more than 50 languages; the original text is at least 2,200 years old.
• Misconception: Epic traditions survive only as written Sanskrit texts. Correct: Regional translations, adaptations, folk versions and orally transmitted tribal traditions also carry the stories.
• Misconception: Legends of epic heroes' visits are presented as a verified itinerary. Correct: They are community legends and folklore connecting local traditions with the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Rice, barley and wheat are common grains in almost every part of India. Shared ingredients are combined in different ways to make varied dishes. Explain the unity and diversity shown here. [2 marks]

1. Unity appears in the common grains and ingredients that provide a shared food base.
2. Diversity appears in the different combinations of these ingredients used to prepare varied dishes.

Q2. The People of India project surveyed 4,635 communities across all States and counted 325 languages using 25 scripts. It observed that many Indians may be migrants, meaning people living away from their birthplace or original community. Give three observations about diversity using these findings. [3 marks]

1. The survey covered 4,635 communities across all States, showing that it examined a wide range of communities rather than a single local group.
2. Its count of 325 languages using 25 scripts shows variety both in spoken languages and in the ways languages are written.
3. Many Indians may be migrants, so a person's present place of residence may differ from their birthplace or the location of their original community.

Q3. A sari is a plain length of unstitched cloth worn in most parts of India. Saris are mostly cotton or silk, with synthetic fabrics also used. Weaving, designs, colours and regional or community draping styles vary. Explain this example of unity in diversity in four points. [4 marks]

1. The shared form is a length of unstitched cloth worn as a sari in most parts of India. This common garment shows unity.
2. Materials show diversity: saris are mostly cotton or silk, while synthetic fabrics are also used.
3. Different weaving methods, designs and colours produce varied expressions of the same basic garment.
4. Ways of draping the cloth vary between regions and communities, adding further variety while preserving the sari's shared identity.

Q4. Chintz is printed cotton cloth from India. It became very popular in seventeenth-century Europe, sales of some European dresses fell sharply, and England and France eventually banned its import to protect their products. Explain the sequence in three points. [3 marks]

1. Indian chintz, a type of printed cotton, became very popular in Europe during the seventeenth century, showing the appeal of an Indian textile beyond India.
2. Its popularity was accompanied by a sharp fall in sales of some European dresses, creating competition for those products.
3. England and France eventually banned imports of Indian chintz in order to protect their own products from this competition.

Q5. Makara Sankrānti marks the beginning of the harvest season in many parts of India on or around January 14. Similar festivals occur about the same date under names including Pongal, Magh Bihu and Uttarayan. Explain the shared element, the diversity and the timing qualification. [3 marks]

1. The shared element is a seasonal connection: Makara Sankrānti marks the beginning of the harvest season in many parts of India.
2. Diversity appears in names such as Pongal, Magh Bihu and Uttarayan for similar festivals celebrated across the country.
3. The timing is on or around January 14, or about the same date. It should retain that qualification when describing the connection between the festivals.

Q6. The Pañchatantra has animal main characters and teaches life skills. Its original Sanskrit text is at least 2,200 years old. Its stories were adapted in almost every Indian language and travelled to Southeast Asia, the Arab world and Europe, inspiring new collections. About 200 adaptations in more than 50 languages are estimated to exist. Explain ‘one collection, many forms’ in five points. [5 marks]

1. The Pañchatantra provides a shared collection of stories in which animals are the main characters and through which important life skills are taught.
2. The original Sanskrit text, at least 2,200 years old, is the common starting point for the many later forms of its stories.
3. Adaptation in almost every Indian language shows linguistic variety within India while linking the versions to one collection of stories.
4. The stories spread to Southeast Asia, the Arab world and Europe, where they inspired new collections and extended their connections beyond India.
5. The estimated about 200 adaptations in more than 50 languages express the extent of this variety. The qualifications preserve the estimated nature of the figures.

Q7. In the Mahābhārata, the Pāṇḍavas fight their cousins, the Kauravas, with Kṛiṣhṇa's help to recover their kingdom. In the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāma, helped by Lakṣhmaṇa and Hanuman, defeats Rāvaṇa, who kidnapped his wife Sītā. Both epics explore right and wrong through many shorter stories. Compare them in three points. [3 marks]

1. The Mahābhārata centres here on the Pāṇḍavas' struggle against their cousins, the Kauravas, to recover their kingdom, with help from Kṛiṣhṇa.
2. The Rāmāyaṇa centres here on Rāma's defeat of Rāvaṇa after Sītā's kidnapping, with support from Lakṣhmaṇa and Hanuman.
3. Both epics contain shorter stories exploring right and wrong. Their different central struggles therefore share a concern with values.

Q8. For more than two millenniums, the epics have been translated or adapted in India and beyond. About a hundred Mahābhārata folklore versions were counted in Tamil Nadu. Many communities preserve epic versions and local legends. Most northeastern and Himalayan tribes have had one epic or both, passed between generations by word of mouth. Irula tribals maintain a shrine with the five Pāṇḍavas carved in stone in the Nilgiris to commemorate their passing through the area. Explain five cultural connections shown by these facts. [5 marks]

1. Translations and adaptations over more than two millenniums connect regional literatures in India and beyond through the same two epics.
2. About a hundred Mahābhārata folklore versions in Tamil Nadu show that many local forms can develop around a shared epic within one region.
3. Communities preserve their own epic versions and legends, connecting their local traditions with stories known more widely across India.
4. Oral transmission among most northeastern and Himalayan tribes connects generations through versions of one or both epics, without requiring written texts.
5. The Irula shrine in the Nilgiris connects a particular place and community with the five Pāṇḍavas through a carved stone commemorating their remembered passing through the area.

Key takeaways

• Unity in diversity means recognising shared connections within differences of food, language, clothing, festivals, stories and other ways of life.
• The People of India project surveyed 4,635 communities and counted 325 languages using 25 scripts across India.
• Common staple grains and spices show unity, while their many combinations in different dishes show diversity.
• The sari has a shared unstitched form, with variety in fabrics, weaving, designs, colours, draping and practical uses.
• Makara Sankrānti marks the harvest season's beginning in many parts of India on or around January 14; similar festivals bear different names.
• The Pañchatantra's animal stories teach life skills and illustrate how one collection can take many forms in different languages.
• The Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata share concerns with right and wrong and have spread through translations, adaptations, art and oral traditions.
• Community legends connect epic heroes with local places, while Indian culture values diversity as an enrichment supported by underlying unity.

Test yourself

What does the expression ‘Many in the One’ help us recognise?

It helps us recognise a shared connection within many forms, such as common ingredients in varied dishes or the same sari worn in different ways.

What is meant by a migrant in the People of India discussion?

Here, a migrant is someone who does not live near their birthplace or with their original community.

Why are cereals, millets and pulses described as staple grains?

They are staple grains because they provide the basic food for most Indians, despite the variety of dishes prepared.

How can sari designs differ in the way they are produced?

Some designs form part of the cloth itself, while others are printed after the cloth has been woven.

What does the Vaiśhali relief show about the sari?

It shows a woman wearing a sari and goes back a few centuries BCE, providing evidence of the garment's long history.

What qualification belongs with the date of Makara Sankrānti?

It marks the harvest season's beginning in many parts of India on or around January 14, preserving approximate timing.

How widely have the Pañchatantra stories travelled beyond India?

They travelled to Southeast Asia, the Arab world and Europe, inspiring new collections of stories along the way.

How do the Irula tribals connect a Nilgiris shrine with the epics?

They maintain a shrine containing a carved stone depicting the five Pāṇḍava brothers, commemorating their passing through the area.