Rudyard Kipling, a noted English poet once said,

“The East is East and the West is West,

       The Two Never Shall Meet.”

This remark is aptly true.

 India is our motherland and we are proud of our country. It is an ancient land with a rich heritage. It is the land of the Vedas and the Gita. It is the land where great sages and saints gave the gospel of love, truth and wisdom. Since the dawn of civilization, our Monks and Gurus crossed the boundaries of the country and spread the great religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism and Sikhism to different parts of the world. We can recollect, the vast galaxy of these saints and sages – Sage Valmiki, Mahatma Buddha, Lord Mahavir, Guru Nanak, Sankaracharya and more recently Mahatma Gandhi. It is rightly said India has been the birth place of great religious teachers of the world and cradle of many religions.

Our country is a glorious land with bright history and beautiful geographical conditions. On the North stand the snowy and impassable peaks of Himalayas. There are three major oceans on the other three sides. The sacred perennial rivers-the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Brahmaputra flow with murmuring sound. The Gangetic plain is the heartland of our country. It is the most fertile area of the world. Our country is the seventh largest country in the world in term of area. There are 28 states and 7 union territories in our country. It seems as if mother India is wearing a garland with 35 sweet and scented flowers. Due to its vastness, it is called a sub-continent.

There are diverse sub-cultures in our country, people in different parts of the country speak different languages, eat different types of food, wear different types of clothes, worship different gods and goddess and celebrate different festivals. The festivals of India represent the cultural aspects of our nation. They give us fun, frolic and joy. In brief, unity in diversity is the striking feature of our country’s culture. Our motherland stands for spiritualism while the western culture runs after money and materialism. The flow of secularism has made India great.

             Our foreign policy has ever been based on the principle of “Live and Let Live”. A wound in swan’s belly greatly affected the heart of Gautam Buddha. He preached a new religion called Buddhism. Emperor Ashoka renounced the path of war after a glorious victory in Kalinga war. Subsequently, he became a great ruler by his benevolent works. Mahatma Gandhi drove away the mighty Britishers by his two powerful weapons of truth and non-violence. Our Government is enthusiastically helping to those countries which are fighting for freedom against imperialism. Non-aggression and peaceful co-existence among the nations of the world is the guiding principle of our foreign policy.

There are a large number of historical monuments in our country. The Taj Mahal on the bank of river Yamuna is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is a “wonder in white marble.” The caves of Ajanta, Ellora, Khajooraho, Red Fort and Konark temple speak a lot about the glorious cultural heritage of our country. It is our pride that the Taj has been declared as the top-most wonderful monument of the world in recent survey. Taj is an epitome of love and it attracts the peace-loving people around the world by its scenic beauty.

Ours is the largest democracy in the world today. The blood of heroes and martyrs like Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel, Gokhale, Rajendra Prasad, Subash Bose, Bhagat Singh, Indira Gandhi and many others nourished and nurtured the great democracy. The democracy of Pakistan, Bangladesh and other neighboring countries of India are falling down like house of sands from time to time since Independence. But our democracy is working as a light house to other countries which have lost their way in the stormy ocean of autocratic government. Democracy teaches us to be tolerant, self-sacrificing and non-aggressive in our thought and action.

 Literature is the mirror of society. In the world of literature, we have renowned personalities such as R.K.Narayan, Naipul, Mulk Raj Anand, Rabindra Tagore, Prem Chand besides a host of others. In the realm of science, our scientists Aryabhatta, Bhaskar Reddy, C.V. Raman, Homi Jahangir Bhabha, Meghanad Saha and hundred others have excelled all over the world for their scientific discoveries and inventions.   Our classical dances such as Bharat Natyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi and Manipuri have their special charms. The noted musical instrumentalists like Ravi Shankar, Bismillah Khan, Zakir Hussain, H.P Chaurasia and Gajanan Rao have earned world-wide reputation. In the realm of film kingdom, Satyajit Ray, Shabana Azmi, Shyam Benegal, Om Puri etc. have carved out a niche of their own on the walls of film history. Recently, an India–related movie, ”Slumdog Millionaire” acclaimed eight Oscars awards! Our country is excelled in sports also. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhyanchand, Dillip Tirkey, Biswanathan Anand, Prakash Padukone, P.T Usha, Baichung Bhutia, Abhinav Bindra, Karnam Malleswari, Vijendar Kumar, Sushil Kumar, Rajya Vardhan Singh Rathore, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati, Sania Mirza and many others have brought pride and glory to Indians in the international level of sports.

 India is a land of many name and many facets. It is also called Bharat, Hindustan and India is according to the name of famous river Indus. It is the cradle of the world’s most ancient civilizations and this incredible country is the home to 1,136,602,970 people! It has the distinction of never having invaded another country in a history spanning 1,00,000 years! It is also the land of learning. India’s contribution to the world includes the decimal system and subjects like Calculus, Algebra and Geometry. With millions of people, thousands of languages and hundreds of cities and villages, India is a land with many interesting aspects which come together to create a country that is vast, diverse and still united! Mark Twain has aptly said, “India is a cradle of the human race, the birth place of human speech, the mother of history, the grand mother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only”. Again we should remember Nehru’s words, ”we have to build up this great country into a mighty nation, mighty in thought, mighty in action and mighty in culture”. His rainbow dream and rosy aspiration have been materialized to a large extent.

 Inspite of all these lustures, our country is now facing many burning problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, population explosion, pollution, communal riots and extremist problems. These are standing as a stumbling block on the path of national progress. Necessary steps are being taken by the government to eradicate these problems for national integration and peaceful co-existence among the  Indians.

Since the dawn of civilization, we the Indians have been on the forefront. Our old motto is “Oh God, Lead us from darkness unto light”. We, the noble sons and daughters of India should take firm determination to keep up our glorious past and make our country shine again with that glory and greatness. We have to prove by our noble deeds that-

“East or West

 India is the Best.”