India a vibrant, bustling, and incredibly diverse land: Aryaman Kunzru

Despite being an Indian citizen, I’ve only known India as it’s presented in postcards -- this vibrant, bustling, and incredibly diverse land. I’ve revelled in the day-to-day chaos of India, marvelled at the fortitude of the common Indian, and have seen glimpses of India’s kaleidoscopic identity.

Yet, I’ve always felt my understanding of India is like that of a tourist’s. I’ve only dabbled in Indian culture, without diving deep into it. In the last eighteen years I’ve never adequately understood my home country; as of today, its intricate social fabric, and its rich history seem foreign and distant. I feel disconnected from my roots -- unsure of their significance, and unable to understand my place in India today.

So I started a search into my roots, specifically trying to understand the factors that led to my family’s exodus from Kashmir, more than a generation ago. I travelled to India, and spent time interviewing 50+ experts from a range of fields - professors in universities, artists, poets, bureaucrats, social activists, journalists, policy-makers, religious figures, etc.

These interviews were a mind-opening exercise. I learnt about how plurality is at the heart of the Indian identity. For a start, India is the birthplace of four major religions - Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Interesting, two of the four (Buddhism and Jainism) to not have a God! I learnt about how Hindi, the most widely spoken language of India, emerged out of Hindvi -- a language created by a Muslim named Amir Khusro. I learnt about how misleading the term “minority” is in India - just 1 per cent of the indian population accounts for 10 million people, and how diversity is an essential part of India’s DNA - from the architecture of our buildings to the languages we speak, and the religions we follow.

Keen todo my part to preserve plurality in India, I initiated the #unitedinfaith project. I began by creating a social media movement -- #uif -- aimed at opposing such skewed narratives, and to celebrate the oneness of humanity. So far, 120,000 have interacted with this social media movement.

I supplemented this social media movement with a series of blog posts -- discussing my takeaways from the interviews I conducted, and social harmony from a range of perspectives (history, education, politics, etc.). Additionally, I quickly identified the importance of education in this issue, and am researching the connection between national policy, education, and social mindsets.