Discover India
So many languages, so many festivals, so many kitchens and songs - and somehow, one country holding them all. This is the shared home your civic sense is for. Here is a little of what we are all looking after.
For everyone. No account, nothing collected about you.
India is not one people made the same. It is many peoples who share a country - and the difference is not a flaw to fix. It is the whole idea.
The Constitution asks this of every citizen:
“to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities.”
Cross a district line and the script on the shop signs changes. None of them is the one true language of India. Every single one of them is.
22 languages are written into the Constitution. The last census counted 121 in all.
Source: Languages of India (Wikipedia), Census of India 2011A marble tomb, rock-cut caves, a mountain railway, tiger-filled mangroves - places so remarkable that the world pledged to help keep them standing.
44 places in India are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage CentreYoga on a mat, a festival that fills a whole city, a craft passed from hand to hand - traditions that stay alive by being done, not by being stored.
16 living traditions from India are on UNESCO's heritage list.
Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageFrom Bharatanatyam to Sattriya, each classical dance grew in a different corner of the country, and each still speaks its region without a single word.
8 classical dance traditions are recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Source: Indian classical dance (Wikipedia), Sangeet Natak AkademiHimalaya to desert to coral coast to rainforest - a single country holding a startling share of the planet's wild life.
More than 70% of the world's wild tigers live in India.
Source: NTCA, Status of Tigers in India 2022A temple bell, a call to prayer, a church choir, the free kitchen at a gurudwara - often on the same street, often in the same week. Someone nearby is always celebrating something.
The same grain becomes a hundred different dinners. Every region feeds you its own way - and every region is quietly certain that its way is the best.
And here is the part that is yours
The Constitution asks this of every citizen:
“to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.”
Not with grand gestures, but with the wrapper you carry to the bin, the horn you do not lean on, the room you make for a stranger. A country this varied only holds together if each of us keeps our own small corner of it kind.