NATIONAL INTEGRATION
National Integration
National integration is the recognition and awareness of a common identity amongst citizens of a country, along with deliberate and sustained effort to nurture such an identity in pursuit of national unity.
However, it starts with the recognition of entrenched differences in society and how such differences can be coalesced towards a common identity and interest to help foster a united, strong and prosperous nation.
Importance of National Integration
The importance of national integration , certainly can be understood as it helps to stabilize democracy, improve economic growth, develop the nation and provide all the important rights and duties to the people.
Causes of National Integration
1. Casteism:
This is a major obstacle to national integration. There is a great difference in the population of different religions and castes in India.
Followers of the appropriate caste or religion consider themselves superior to those who believe in other religions or castes.
These biases are so ugly and narrow that people are unable to think of national interest.
2. Communalism:
This is a major obstacle to national unity. In our country, people follow different religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. Generally, all citizens live together in harmony.
Sometimes the accumulated interests create feelings of mutual enmity and hatred, leading to communal clashes. We need to rein in the communal divide to keep national unity unharmed.
3. Provincialism:
It is also a major obstacle in India’s national unity. There is a growing richness for the creation of new states based on language.
The narrow sense of regionalism in various states of the country is increasing mutual enmity between states.
4. Political parties:
In democracies, political parties need to be there for building public opinion and political awareness.
Unfortunately, there are many parties that chase votes on the basis of caste, religion, creed and region, disregarding the public and national interest.
5. Linguistic differences:
In a vast country like India, the national language should be spoken and understood in all regions.
But due to narrow regional views, Hindi or any other language has not yet been included as a means of communication by all the people of the country.
Politics on linguistic distinctiveness is not letting people rise above their partisan differences over language.
