Through geographically, ethnologically and historically India presents an endless diversity to any observer - there is none the less a fundamental unity underlying this diversity. But as Mr Vincent A. Smith has said : " European writers as a rule have been more conscious of the diversity than of the unity of India... India beyond all doubt possesses a deep underlying fundamental unity, far more profound than that produced either by geographical isolation or by political suzerainty. That unity transcends the innumerable diversities of blood, color, language, dress, manners and sect. (Oxford History of India- Vincent A.Smith).
Geographically, India seems to be cut out from the rest of the world as a self-contained unit. Bounded on the north by the mighty Himalayas and surrounded on both sides by the endless ocean, India affords the best example of a geographical unit. The ethnic diversity of India has never been a problem - for throughout her history she has been able to absorb different races and impose on them one common culture and tradition. The most important cementing factor has been the Hindu religion. North or South, East or West, wherever you may travel, you will find the same religious ideas, the same culture and the same tradition. All Hindus look upon India as the Holy Land.The sacred rivers like the sacred cities are distributed all over the country. (The Fundamental Unity of India, Prof. Radha Kumud Mookherji). If as a pious Hindu you have to complete your round of pilgrimage, you will have to travel to Setubandha - Rameshwaram in the extreme south and to Badrinath in the bosom of the snow capped Himalayas in the north.The great teachers who wanted to convert the country to their faith had always to tour the whole of India and one of the greatest of them, Shankaracharya, who flourished in the eighth century A.D, built four "Ashramas" (monasteries) in four corners of India, which flourish to this day. Everywhere the same scriptures are read and followed and the epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, are equally popular wherever you may travel.
With the advent of the Mohammedans, a new synthesis was gradually worked out. Though they did not accept the religion of the Hindu's, they made India their home and shared in the common social life of the people - their joys and sorrows. Through mutual co-operation, a new art and a new culture was evolved which was different from the old but which nevertheless was distinctly Indian. In architecture, painting, music - new creations were made which represented the happy blending of the two streams of culture. Moreover, the administration of the Mohammedan rulers left untouched the daily life of the people and did not interfere with local self govt based on the old system of village communities. With British rule, however, there came a new religion, a new culture and a new civilization which did not want to blend with the old but desired to dominate the country completely.The british people, unlike the invaders of old, did not make India their home. They regarded themselves as birds of passage and looked upon India as the source of raw materials and as the market for finished goods. Moreover, they endeavored to imitate the autocracy of the Mohammedan rulers without following thier wise policy of complete non-interference in local affairs. The result fo this was that the Indian people began to feel for the first time in their history that they were being dominated culturally, politically and economically by a people who were quite alien to them and with whom they had nothing whatsoever in common. Hence the magnitude of the revolt against the British domination of India.
Source : The Indian Struggle 1920-1942, by Subhas Chandra Bose
