The Idea Of India

India, for the ones who are new to it, is a country of different states, different religions different beliefs and different people. For those who know about it too remain puzzled about how such a country can co-exist. In the nut-shell, it is similar to Europe. There we have France, Italy Germany as similar as cheese an chalk. Here we have Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala in the same league. Yet those are countries these are provinces or states.

For those intellectual types who want to dwell on the reason of it, "Idea of India" by Sunil Khilnani is worthy read. Taking from it, he says that India can basically still exist as one country not because of some sort of unity or some sort of bondness but because of strong regional feeling in the people of a region iteslf and fuelled by this country's political system which tends to keep the region high on his agenda than his country so, in essence people still maintain their association with the state along with the country.

Thats in brief the view I mostly adhere to among all the theories put forward that how can India co-exist. (Puerly personal, readers are advised to explore more)

Abhishek Manocha
Founder, http://www.easysquarefeet.com