Intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity: Pranab Mukherjee

NAGPUR: Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said India’s national identity has “emerged through a longdrawn process of confluence, assimilation and co-existence” and any “attempt” at defining the country’s nationhood in terms of dogmas and identities of religion, region, hatred and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity.

Speaking at Reshimbaug grounds at the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh here on the occasion of Tritiya Varsha (graduation ceremony of RSS functionaries), Mukherjee made it clear that the “soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance”. He then went on to underline the secular and composite culture of India.

“Secularism and inclusion are amatter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation,” he told the RSS audience that was hearing the quintessential Congress leader, who resigned from the party when he was elected President, for the first time in decades.


Mukherjee spoke of constitutional patriotism and recalled the efforts of noted Congress leaders such as Surendranath Banerjee, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel in building and strengthening the idea of Indian nationalism. He even quoted Nehru in this context.

Need to Spread Harmony
The former President sought to rise beyond the political controversy that surrounded his visit to the RSS headquarters and gave a historical perspective of the different kingdoms and conquests of India over the years. “Throughout this period of 2,500 years of changing political fortunes and conquests, the 5,000-yearold civilisational continuity remained unbroken. In fact, each conqueror and each foreign element has been absorbed to form a new synthesis and unity.”

India’s nationhood, he said, is not one language or one religion. “It is the perennial universalism of 1.3 billion people who use more than 122 languages and 1,600 dialects in their everyday lives… Major ethnic groups — Aryans, Dravidians, Mongoloids — live under one system, one flag and one identity of being Bharatiya and have no enemies. This is what makes Bharat a diverse and united nation,” he said.

Mukherjee spoke of the “increased violence around us”. “Every time a child or woman is brutalised, the soul of India is wounded. Manifestations of rage are tearing our social fabric. Every day we see increased violence around us. At the heart of this violence is darkness, fear and mistrust. We must free our public discourse from all forms of violence — physical as well as verbal.” “Only a non-violent society can ensure the participation of all sections of people in the democratic process,” he said.

Mukherjee ended his speech by saying that people are at the centre of all activities of the state and nothing should be done to divide them and create animosity amongst them. “Let the objective of spreading peace, harmony and happiness inform the formulation of our public policy and guide all the actions of our state and citizens in their everyday life. This and only this will be able to create a happy nation, where nationalism flows automatically.”