The only possible idea of India is that of a nation greater than the sum of its parts.
Interpretation
India represents a unique identity formed by its diverse parts, highlighting unity in diversity.
Shashi Tharoor's quote emphasizes that India is not merely a collection of various states, cultures, and communities but rather a cohesive entity that embodies the strength and richness of its diversity. It suggests that the collective identity of India transcends individual elements, creating a nation that is more profound and significant than the sum of its diverse components.
In practice
Citing this quote during a speech on national unity.
Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq to 9/11, certainly, but also from Coke to jeans. It is entirely possible for people around the world to love American products, American books, American movies, American music, and dislike the policies of the government of America.
The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims.
Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of paradoxes, and one of those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people.
I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I believe in an India that is secure in itself and confident of its place in the world, an India that is a proud example of tolerance, freedom and hope for the downtrodden.
I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe in an India of openness and straightforwardness, not of hypocrisy and double-dealing. I believe in an India where opportunities are available to all, and not just to a chosen few.
The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global distaste for the instruments of American hard power: the Iraq invasion, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture, rendition, Blackwater's killings of Iraqi civilians.
At birth, we emerge from dream soup. At death, we sink back into dream soup. In between soups, there is a crossing of dry land. Life is a portage.
Society is not a mere sum of individuals. Rather, the system formed by their association represents a specific reality which has its own characteristics... The group thinks, feels, and acts quite differently from the way in which its members would were they isolated. If, then, we begin with the individual, we shall be able to understand nothing of what takes place in the group.
All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.
A society based on the freedom to choose is better than a society based on the principles of socialism, communism and coercion.
We don't need the Nazis to destroy us. We're destroying ourselves.
The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook
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