Fundamental Unity of India

India owes its name to the river SINDHU (Indus) - now in Pakistan. Sindhu means a huge sheet of water. Sindhu, sometimes is used as a synonym for ocean. The early Aryan settlers called it Sindhu. In 518BC, Darius, the Persian emperor, conquered the area around Sindhu and made it a satrapy of his empire. The Persians pronounced 'S' as 'H'. Hence, Sindhu became popular as Hindu.

The early people called their country 'Bharata Varsha', i.e, the county of Bharata and his progeny. Bharat is a famous king mentioned in the early puranas. Bharata Varsha is supposed tobe a part of an island continent known as 'Jambu Dvipa'. The people of India are referred to as 'Bharata Santatih'. The muslim invaders called the country 'Hindustan'. The Britishers called it 'India'. In India we can see people professing all the major religions of the world. India, hence can be called "the epitome of the world".


Racial Diversity:

Majority of he people of Inda are descendents of immigrants from across the Himalayas. Himalaya means the abode of snow.
Dr.B.S.Guha classified Indians into 6 major ethnic groups,
1. The Negrito
2. Proto-australoids
3. Mongoloids
4. Mediterranean (or) Dravidian
5. Western Brachycephalas
6. Nordic Aryans


Linguistic Dversity:

Th 8th Schedule of Constitution of India recognises 15major languages,
1. Assamese
2. Bengali
3. Gujarati
4. Hindi
5. Kannada
6. Kashmiri
7. Malayalam
8. Marathi
9. Oriya
10. Punjabi
11. Sanskrit
12. Tamil
13. Telugu
14. Urdu
15. Sindhi

Sanskrit, Kashmiri and Sindhi are not official languages in any state of India. Sanskrit is regarded as the mother of modern Indian languages. The Constitution of India recognises Hindi in Devanagiri script as the official language of the India Union. The languages spoken in North India belong to Indo-Aryan family and the languages of South India belong to Dravidian family.


Common Heritage:

Ramayana and Mahabharata are the epics of India. They are regarded as the common heritage of all Indians. Hinduism is also called Sanathana Dharma. Two main sects of Hinduism are Vaishnavism and Saivism.