NATIONAL INTEGRATION COUNCIL

National integration is important under the history of India as India is a country where almost 3000 castes are found. National integration is the process where the council always focuses on maintaining equality in the massive caste, religion diversification. The council also addresses and helps to resolve the problems arising from casteism, regionalism, and communalism.The then Prime Minister, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, convened National Integration Conference in September-October, 1961 to find ways and means to combat the evils of communalism, casteism, regionalism, linguism and narrow-mindedness, and to formulate definite conclusions in order to give a lead to the country. In further discussion, the overview of the “National Integration Council” of India such as the role and responsibilities, and objective of the NIC (“National Integration Council”) is given. It will be helpful to provide a glance at India’s caste system and diversity of religion and different communities. 

National integration 

National Integration is a council that is primarily ruled by the central government of India under the prime minister’s governance. The NIC (“National IntegrationCouncil”) of India was formed in the year 1961with the membership of 147. The chairman of the national integration council is the prime minister of India and the central government acts as an advisory body. It was proposed in 1961 after the assembly conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru, then the prime minister of India. The members of the National Integration council include firstly different government bodies such as cabinet ministers, chief ministers, and leaders of opposition parties. Apart from these members the NIC also includes media heads, renowned entrepreneurs of the country, and some celebrities. As mentioned earlier the basic purpose of the NIC (“National Integration Council”) is to identify and resolve the problem regarding the casteism, regionalism, and communalism system of India.

Role of National integration 

The basic role of the national integration council is to make the novice understand the policy and the activity related to the policy. It was aimed to give value to the cultural heritage of India by maintaining unity. The national integration council aims to promote national integration amid the Indian society by performing several activities. These activities generally include quiz competitions, cultural presentations, programs related to state awareness, and debates. Apart from all these programs the council also provides explanations through practical exhibitions on the way the national integration council works.The National Integration Council (NIC) has recently been reconstituted and the meeting of the reconstituted NIC under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister was held on 23rd September, 2013. The NIC discussed the following issues in detail:-  

• Communal Harmony- Measures to promote communal harmony, measures to prevent communal disturbances, role of social networking sites to promote national integration, tackling hate propaganda.  

• Confidence building measures to tackle communal disturbances, tackling communal situations, taking help from all sections of society in removing communal tension.  

• Safety and security of women.  

• Measures to tackle crimes against SCs/STs, positive intervention and proper implementation of development schemes, laws relating to SCs/STs, associating all sections of society in removing inter-caste tension.

The objective of national integration council 

The council of national integration declared its goals and objectives in its first meeting held in 1968. The council of national integration primarily sets its objective not to stand with any internal conflict against religious freedom, any injustice in the political, economic, and social things. More specifically the objectives of national integration have mentioned below:

• To prevent the society from any violent approach by discouraging the misleading elements, regional hostility, and communal malice.

• To implement such policies and principles to maintain the harmony for which the country will stand together.

• National integration also helps to unite the constructive forces of the country to intend national unity. It also provides encouragement, solidarity, and articulation of the leadership in the country.

• National integration also helps to formulate appropriate community activities and programs to bring peer-to-peer sentiment. It also emphasizes the privileges of common citizenship.

• It aims to increase the standard of national life.

Importance of national integration 

Apart from the terminology, conceptually national integration is also important. Especially for a diverse country like India, providing proper knowledge on national integration is important as it helps to develop a sense of unity. National integration also helps to build common citizenship among the people of the country. Overall national integration is an educational process that helps the government to develop a sense of loyalty to the country. It also helps to unite the countrymen and the feeling of cohesion by the people and solidarity. Proper teaching of national integration also helps to build all these above-mentioned factors psychologically in the society and its people belonging from different cultural backgrounds.

Conclusion   

While talking about the country India, it is full of diversity in its natural creature as well as in its religion, languages, and different community. The country India is valued worldwide for its rich and valuable cultural heritage. The history of India has witnessed different leadership roles played by leaders coming from different backgrounds in terms of their caste, religion, and community. In a country full of communal diversity, bonds and unity among the people irrespective of the different caste, religion, creeds, and gender is important to maintain peace. Hence proper guidance is required to resolve the problems to avoid any kind of internal conflict and to ensure unity. Thus the National Integration Council has immense importance in this context. In the above discussion, the role and importance of NIC have been mentioned for a clear analysis.