Short & Long Question Answers: Unity in Diversity, or ' Many in the One' | Social Studies for Class 6 PDF Download

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Short Question Answers

Q1: What does Rabindranath Tagore’s prayer mean?
Ans:  Rabindranath Tagore prays to never lose the joy of feeling the ‘one’ amid the ‘many.’

•  He means finding unity—like a single thread—within India’s vast diversity of people, cultures, and traditions. 
•  It’s like enjoying a colorful festival yet sensing everyone’s shared happiness. 
•  This reflects India’s spirit, where differences in food or dress don’t hide the deeper connection.

Q2: How does Sri Aurobindo describe India’s nature?
Ans: Sri Aurobindo says India’s nature is ‘unity in diversity,’ her true Swabhava (essence) and Swadharma (duty). 

• He sees her as the ‘Many in the One,’ where diverse cultures blend into a strong foundation. 
• Imagine a tree with many branches but one trunk—India thrives by uniting her variety, like languages and customs, into a single, natural identity that has always defined her, he believes.

Q3: What did the ‘People of India’ project find about diversity?
Ans: The ‘People of India’ project, run by the Anthropological Survey of India, studied 4,635 communities and found 325 languages using 25 scripts. 

• It showed many Indians are migrants, living far from their birthplaces. 
• This huge survey, done in the late 20th century, proves India’s diversity—different tongues, writings, and roots—making it a land of countless unique yet connected lives.

Q4: How does Vincent Smith explain India’s history?
Ans: Vincent Smith, a British historian, wondered how India’s ‘bewildering diversity’ could have a history. He found the answer in ‘unity in diversity.’

•  Despite varied languages and customs, India holds a hidden oneness, like a puzzle with different pieces forming one picture. 
• This unity, he says, lets historians weave her story, showing how her many parts fit into a single, amazing tale.

Q5: What are staple grains in Indian food?
Ans: Staple grains in India are basic foods eaten everywhere, like cereals—rice, barley, wheat—and millets like bajra, jowar, and ragi. Pulses, such as dals and grams, join them. These grains unite Indian meals, from north to south, even if dishes differ. They’re the foundation, like bricks in a house, letting cooks create thousands of tasty recipes across the country.

Q6: What spices are common across Indian cooking?
Ans: Common spices in India include turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and ginger, used in kitchens nationwide.

• These flavors spice up dishes from Kashmir to Kerala, blending with local grains and veggies. 
• They’re like a shared language of taste, showing unity beneath the diversity of regional recipes, making Indian food both varied and familiar to all who eat it.

Q7: How does the sari show unity in diversity?
Ans: The sari, a single unstitched cloth, is worn across India, showing unity. Yet, it comes in hundreds of types—like Banarasi silk or cotton—woven or printed with diverse designs and colours, reflecting regional styles. From ancient Vaiśhali reliefs to today, its many draping ways and uses, like carrying items, highlight how one dress holds India’s rich variety together.

Q8: Why was Indian chintz banned in Europe?
Ans: In the 17th century, Indian chintz—a beautiful printed cotton—became so popular in Europe that it hurt local dress sales. England and France, worried about their own textile makers, banned chintz imports to protect them. This shows how India’s fine cotton, loved worldwide for centuries, mixed unity in quality with diverse appeal, impacting even far-off lands.

Q9: What is Makara Sankrānti, and how is it celebrated?
Ans: Makara Sankrānti, around January 14, marks the harvest season’s start across India. Though called different names—like Pongal or Lohri—it’s celebrated similarly, with feasts and joy for new crops. This shared timing and purpose unites people, even as regional names and customs add diversity, proving festivals can tie India together despite their many flavours.

Q10: What is the Pañchatantra, and how did it spread?
Ans: The Pañchatantra is a 2,200-year-old Sanskrit story collection with animal characters teaching life skills. It spread across India, adapted into nearly every language, and beyond—to Southeast Asia, the Arab world, and Europe—with about 200 versions in over 50 tongues. This one text’s journey shows unity in its lessons, growing diverse through each culture’s retelling.

Q11: What are the main stories of the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata?
Ans: The Rāmāyana tells of Rāma, with Lakṣhmaṇa and Hanuman, defeating Rāvaṇa to rescue Sita, his kidnapped wife. The Mahābhārata follows the Pandavas, aided by Kriṣhṇa, battling their cousins, the Kauravas, to reclaim their kingdom. Both epics, long Sanskrit poems, explore right and wrong, uniting India with tales of dharma across centuries.

Q12: How do tribal communities connect to the epics?
Ans: Tribal communities, like the Bhils and Gonds, have their own oral versions of the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata. They add legends, saying heroes like the Pandavas or Rāma visited their lands. In Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, Irula tribals carve stones for the Pandavas. This shows how epics weave a shared thread into tribal diversity.

Q13: What does K.S. Singh say about the Mahābhārata’s reach?
Ans: K.S. Singh, from the ‘People of India’ project, says the Mahābhārata’s heroes, like the Pandavas, visited nearly every Indian place according to folklore. Hardly a spot lacks a tale of their journey. This wide reach ties India’s regions together, showing how one epic’s unity spreads through countless local stories, linking all her people.

Q14: How does Jawaharlal Nehru describe the epics’ impact?
Ans: Jawaharlal Nehru said India’s epics, like the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata, deeply shaped people’s lives before Independence. Even illiterate villagers knew their verses by heart, using them in daily talk to share morals and richness. He saw this cultural thread uniting masses, proving the epics’ power to blend diversity into one vibrant identity.

Q15: Why does India celebrate diversity?
Ans: India celebrates diversity because it enriches, not divides, her culture. From foods to festivals, variety adds beauty, like colors in a painting, but a shared unity—like staple grains or epic tales—holds it together.  This balance is India’s strength, letting her many voices sing as one, a harmony Tagore and Aurobindo cherished.

Long Question Answers

Q1: What does ‘unity in diversity’ mean in the Indian context?
Ans:

• Unity in diversity in India means many different people, cultures, and traditions blend into one strong identity like a rainbow making one bright light.
•  Rabindranath Tagore's prayer is to feel the 'one' in the 'many', a joy of connection despite differences.
• Sri Aurobindo calls it India’s natural way, her Swabhava, where diversity in languages or customs rests on a united foundation.
• With 1.4 billion people—18% of the world—India’s variety shines in 325 languages and 25 scripts, as the 'People of India' project found.
• Yet, Vincent Smith saw a hidden unity letting her history be told.
• Food unites with grains like rice and spices like turmeric, while the sari’s single cloth drapes in countless styles.
• Festivals like Makara Sankrānti share a harvest joy under different names, and epics like the Mahābhārata tie tribes to cities with one dharma.
• This mix isn’t chaos—it’s a treasure India celebrates, enriching her soul.

Q2: How does food reflect India’s diversity and unity together?
Ans: 

• India’s food bursts with diversity, offering thousands of dishes, yet it rests on a united base of ingredients.
• Travel across the country, and you’ll taste endless recipes—from spicy curries to sweet laddoos—each region adding its twist.
•  Staple grains like rice, wheat, barley, and millet (bajra, jowar, ragi), are eaten everywhere, forming the backbone of meals.
• Pulses—dals and grams—join them, filling plates from Gujarat to Assam.
• Spices like turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and ginger flavor dishes nationwide, are a common thread in every kitchen.
• Vegetables and oils link regions too, showing unity in what Indians grow and cook.
• This shared base lets cooks craft diverse flavours, like a painter using the same colours for different pictures.
• It’s a perfect example of ‘Many in the One,’ where variety thrives because of a few essentials tying it all together, feeding India’s rich, united table.

Q3: How does the sari illustrate both unity and diversity in Indian clothing?
Ans:

• The sari is a stunning symbol of India’s unity in diversity, a single piece of cloth worn nationwide yet endlessly varied.
• As one unstitched dress, it unites women across regions, its history carved in ancient Vaiśhali reliefs from centuries BCE.
• But its diversity dazzles—silk saris like Banarasi or Kanjivaram, cotton ones in countless weaves, and modern synthetics show off different fabrics.
• Weaving methods and designs, some in the cloth, others printed later, add more variety, with colors from every pigment imaginable.
• Ways of draping it shift by region or community, and women use it creatively—carrying babies or goods—adding practical twists.
• Once, India’s chintz cotton wowed Europe, banned for its popularity.
• Travelers loved its simplicity and endless styles.
• The sari proves unity with one form, blooming into diversity through fabric, colour, and use, a thread of India’s cultural fabric.

Q4: How do festivals like Makara Sankrānti show India’s unity in diversity?
Ans:

• Festivals in India, like Makara Sankrānti, weave unity and diversity into a joyful tapestry.
• Celebrated around January 14, this harvest festival marks the season’s start across the country, uniting people in gratitude for new crops.
• Yet, it wears many names—Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Lohri in Punjab, or Uttarayan in Gujarat—each with local customs, from kite-flying to bonfires.
• Still, the timing and purpose stay the same, a shared root linking farmers and families everywhere.
• Other festivals, like those in October-November, echo this pattern, with varied names but common cheer.
• This blend reflects India’s way—different voices singing one song.
• Makara Sankrānti shows how a single celebration can bloom into many styles, tying the nation in a festive embrace.

Different names of similar festivals across India about the same date

Q5: How do the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata unite India’s diverse cultures?
Ans: 

• The Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata, India’s grand epics, unite her diverse cultures with timeless tales of dharma.
• These Sanskrit poems—spanning 7,000 pages—tell of Rama rescuing Sita from Rāvaṇa, and the Pandavas, with Krishna, battling the Kauravas.
• For over 2,000 years, they’ve spread across India, and adapted into every language and folklore.
• Tribes like the Bhils or Mundas retell them orally, claiming heroes visited their lands.
• K.S. Singh notes no place lacks an epic link, a web of stories from Kashmir to the northeast.
• Jawaharlal Nehru saw villagers reciting verses, their lives enriched by these morals.
• Beyond India, they’ve reached Asia, inspiring countless versions.
• With one core—values of right and wrong—they grow diverse in each telling, binding India’s many people into a shared cultural heart.