India is a vast country and has a long history. Its society has evolved through the ages and has also been affected by foreign influences giving it extreme diversity and made unity amidst diversity a characteristic of the Indian society. However, to understand the process, we need to understand the meaning of diversity, unity and pluralism as well as their relevance to the Indian society.
Diversity
In literary terms, diversity means differences. However in social context the meaning is more specific; it means collective differences among people, that is, those differences which mark off one group of people from another. These differences may be of any sort: biological, religious, linguistic etc. On the basis of biological differences, for example, we have racial diversity. On the basis of religious differences, similarly, we have religious diversity. The point to note is that diversity refers to collective differences.
Institutionalization
Indian society is institutionalized in nature in the form of well developed systems like Family, Marriage, Gotra and Caste System.
Multi-class
Indian society is a multi-class due to several classes exists in India. This classification is based ones birth as well as his achievements.
Multi-ethnic Society
Indian society is multi-ethnic in nature due to various racial groups coexists in India. Almost all the races of the world can be seen in India.
Multi-Religious Society
Although Hinduism is the major religion in India, there exist various other religions such as Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity, Bahai and Parsi etc.
Multi-Lingual Society
There exist more than 1600 languages in India. Major languages are Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Odia, Assamese etc