Question

National Integration is a socio- psychological and educational process through which a feeling of unity, solidarity and cohesion develops in the hearts of the people. Analyze how successful we have been in promoting national integration and also mention what are the major obstacles to national integration today?

Answer 1

India is a land of widespread diversities in terms of religion, language, caste, tribe, race, region and so on. Hence, the achievement of national integration becomes very essential for the all-around development and prosperity of the country. The concept of national integration involves political, economic, social, cultural and psychological dimensions and the inter- relations between them.

Soon after the partition of the country, the new government was faced with many serious problems, which provided disintegrating forces and those opposed to the growth of national integration on the one hand and those who wanted to see India a weak nation, on the other, an opportunity to play their role. India has been quite successful in promoting national integration as barring few areas , most of the country is now peaceful. Many of the Secessionist forces have been defeated. Entire country as a whole has been experiencing rapid development. Major focus is being given to North-East India for infrastructure development to integrate them with rest of the India. Even after all the progress, there is still much left to do. There is still religious, caste and linguistic divide in India which will take some time to be uprooted. Also there is an urgent need to solve the problem of Naxalism and Kashmir. Overall, India has come a long way and must continue to move forward.

Major Obstacles To National Integration
Regionalism: It implies the love for a particular region or state in preference to the country as a whole. Regionalism is a country- wide phenomenon which manifests itself in thefollowing six forms:
(i) Demand of the people of certain states for secession from the Indian Union (like Khalistan)
(ii) Demand of the people of certain areas for separate statehood (like Telangana, Bodoland)
(iii) Demand of people of certain Union Territories for full-fledged statehood (like Manipur, Tripura, Puducherry, Delhi, Goa, Daman and Diu and so on).