Each year, on November 19, National Integration Day is celebrated to commemorate the birthday of the country’s first-ever female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. This day is also known as Quami Ekta Divas. The day’s underlying message is one of unity and the importance of integration, regardless of race or religion.
National integration indicates the feeling of a common identity amongst the people of the country even after being from different races, cultures, religions or regions in order to build a strong and developed nation. It promotes the unity of diversity and feeling of oneness amongst people to a great level.
National Integration Day is a day for promoting peace, unity, and integration between all of the different segments of society living in India. Indira Gandhi’s birthday was chosen as a day to celebrate as she is seen as somebody who embodies the good intentions of the holiday.
Indira Gandhi, the famous daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru, was born on 19th November 1917. She rose to high prominence in the Congress Working Committee around the year 1955. In the regime under Lal Bahadur Shastri, she was the minister for information and broadcasting. After the sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, she was made the successor to the PM’s throne. Under her tenure, India won the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Many treaties were signed during her rule, like the Shimla Pact, Indo-Soviet treaty of peace, friendship and co-operation.
She also took advanced steps in space science and India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma made a remarkable feat into the space history of India. She served the country for more than 15 years. On the day of 31st October 1984, she was brutally assassinated by her bodyguards who bathed her in the blood through bullets and gunshots. The assassins’ motive was to avenge the attack done on the Golden Temple, the holy place of the Sikhs.
Gandhi became India’s first female Prime Minister in 1966 and stayed in the role for 11 years. She played a major role in strengthening democratic structure and tradition in the country. She won the war with Pakistan in 1971 and signed a subsequent peace treaty.
After losing her battle for reelection in 1977 she was ousted from her role as Prime Minister, only to be voted back in again in 1980. Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by two of her own bodyguards at her home in New Delhi. National Integration Day was created in her honor as a way to encourage all Indians to integrate, regardless of race or religion.
National integrity Day hopes to keep up the spirit of love, unity and bonding between people of India and cherish these values for our entire lifetime. The central government organizes many national exchange programs on this day for the country’s younger generation. Schools, colleges, and universities across India remember her leadership and the ways in which she changed the country.
India as a country stands on the pillar of strength of these fundamental values – unity and universal brotherhood, peace and tranquillity, love and harmonious living. Yet, there are disturbances created from both internal and external factors. The youth of the country are dissuaded into anti-social elements and other anti-national activities that send out a wrong message to the forthcoming generations.
The influence of politics in our nation is more on the murkier side than proving to be a useful asset to the citizens. Dislocating the peaceful ongoing of society into spheres of tension harms the national integrity of our country. The country has been sailing all these years smoothly amidst all these mixed differences. The one thing that unifies and bonds people together is the integrity factor of being an Indian citizen. Yet, we can see political elements trying to bring in internal differences and playing spoilsport to the smooth functioning of our subcontinent.
The National Integration Council of India, is an assembly of the senior politicians and public figures, was established to fulfill the needs of addressing 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 a country.
It was reconstituted in the month of April in 2010 has 147 members under the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh. The meeting is held from 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.
National Integration Day is celebrated every year in India by conducting a variety of programs 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 national integration. Research activities and publications are held in the camp. A 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 public harmony and national unity.
