National Integration Day: Indira Gandhi’s Birthday

National Integration Day: National integration indicates the feeling of common identity amongst the people of country even after being from different races, cultures, religions or regions in order to build a strong and developed nation. It promotes the unity in diversity and feeling of oneness amongst people to a great level. It brings a type of racial and cultural similarity among people of different community. It can be said that the unity which was displayed during the Indian Independence movement amongst the common Indian people against the British Rule.

India is counted as one of the large country in the world which is famous for its 2nd largest population all over the world and around 1652 spoken languages and dialects. It is the country including all major religions of the world such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism with the varieties in culture, food habits, tradition, costume and social customs. It is a diverse country having great differences in the climate. Instead of being all major differences in this country, each part of it is governed very peacefully by the same Constitution.

However, many bad forces come to the way of national integration which creates the feeling of conflicts among people of different sects and results in the damage of unity and barrier to the progress. Socialism is one of the great barrier come to the unity and progress. The best example of it was the separation of Pakistan in 1947 during the Indian independence which finished the lives of many people and their homes. The main point of the British authority to rule the India was communalism; they divided the Indian Hindus and Muslims and ruled it for long. Now, it is very sad to say that even after being an independent country, the communal feelings have not gone from the mind of Indian people which is a big reason to why we celebrate the National Integration Day annually to try the single bit of efforts to finish away the communalism from India. This is the reason why we are still counted as the developing country and not a developed country even after more than the fifty years of independence.

Linguistic differences and casteism are also the main points of creating threat to the Indian unity. People from one religion and caste support the same whereas oppose the others which hinders their progress and development to the great extent. The great examples of these are the job appointments, political elections and admissions to the educational institutions have involved the caste considerations. Even people avoid interacting to the people of other castes.

Instead of being various forces which threaten our unity there is an Indian Constitution, founded by the Father of the Indian Constitution (Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar), has the ability to resolve all these threats through the Democracy, Secularism and Social Equality which are counted as the important forces promoting the national integration. National Integration celebration on annual basis brings an opportunity to everyone to develop the tolerance and understandings amongst the people for the other religions.

Various National level event celebrations and National Symbols such as the National Flag, the National Emblem and the National Anthem are also acts as the forces promoting the unity.

National Integration Day: Date

National Integration Day would be celebrated on 19th of November.

National Integration Day:

National Integration Day is observed every year on 19th of November all over the India. It is celebrated as the birthday anniversary of the first woman prime minister of the India Indira Gandhi. The office members of the different departments of the district administration get together at one place to take pledge to ensure the common harmony in the society. Officially, the flora tribute is offered at every national integration day on the statue of late Prime Minister.

It is celebrated to enhance the love and unity among people all across the India. As after getting the independence of the country, the people living in India are not independent, they are still slaves somehow. Some of the politically motivated youths of the country are continuously disrupting the unity and communal harmony of the people in society. National integration day is also renowned as the Quami Ekta Divas to remember the birthday celebration of the first woman prime minister of the India.

What is National Integration Council:

The National Integration Council of India, is an assembly of the senior politicians and public figures, was established to fulfill the needs of addressing the problems like casteism, communalism and regionalism in India. It was first established in the conference organized by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1961 aiming to fight problems dividing the unity as well as hindering the progress of country.

It was reconstituted in the month of April in 2010 having 147 members under the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh. The meeting is held time to time by the members of the national integration council to discuss the elimination of discrimination, promotion of communal harmony as well as the control of communalism and violence from the country.

Aims of National Integration Day:

How it is Celebrated:

National Integration Day is celebrated every year in India by conducting variety of programmes and activities like Inter State Youth Exchange Programme (ISYEP), National Integration Camp (NIC), National Youth Festival, National Youth Award and etc. Symposium, seminars, cultural activities are organized to deal with issues related to the national integration. Research activities and publications are held in the camp. Variety of community services are done by youths of different social backgrounds, regions, faiths and religions. Such youths are also given leadership training at the camps. Various other programs are organized to the camps to promote the public harmony and national unity.

About Indira Gandhi:

Indira Gandhi, a first woman prime minister of India, was born at 19th of November in the year 1917 in Allahabad. She was the daughter of the first Indian prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. She got her higher education from the Vishwa Bharati University and Oxford. She was very interested to the political life from her childhood which came true one day.

She got married to the Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and got an opportunity to become Congress Working Committee member in the 1955. Indira Gandhi was a great political leader and thus selected as President in the year 1959. She also became a Cabinet member of the Lal Bahadur Shastri as the Minister for Information. After the sudden death of the Shastri Ji in 1966 at Tashkent, Russia (Now capitol of Uzbekistan), she was selected as the Prime Minister of India.

She played a major role in strengthening the Indian democratic structure and tradition. She handled the war of 1971 against Pakistan and win. She did hard towards the Indian economy to get the declared objectives. She worked a lot for the democratic socialism and weaker sections. Signing of the Shimla Pact with Pakistani Premier Z.A. Bhutto, Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was done under her leadership. Under her leadership the first nuclear tests at Pokhran took place. First Asian Games in the New Delhi, first Astronaut Squadron Leader, Rakesh Sharma had went to the Space and the growth of the Indian Space Research and Peaceful Nuclear development gone under her proficient guidance.

She was very much interested in the music, literature and fine arts. She was awarded with the great Indian award Bharat Ratna in 1971. She has proved to be a fascinating leader of the modern India who has left an impression on the world affairs and the Non-alignment Movement. She was died on 31 October in 1984 by the bullets of assassin at her residence.