Discuss in class the following quotation by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when he travelled to many parts of India before Independence: “Everywhere I found a cultural background which had exerted a powerful influence on their lives. … The old epics of India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and other books, in popular translations and paraphrases, were widely known among the masses, and every incident and story and moral in them was engraved on the popular mind and gave a richness and content to it. Illiterate villagers would know hundreds of verses by heart and their conversation would be full of references to them or to some story with a moral, enshrined in some old classic.”

Nehru observed how India’s ancient epics, like the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata, profoundly influenced people across the country, regardless of literacy levels. Villagers, often illiterate, could recall hundreds of verses, embedding these stories into everyday life and conversation. This connection provided them with a rich cultural foundation and moral compass, illustrating how India’s heritage was preserved orally and revered through the masses. The epics fostered a shared ethical and cultural identity, showing the unique power of oral traditions in connecting generations across diverse backgrounds.

For more NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 8 Unity in Diversity, or ‘Many in the One’ Extra Questions and Answer:

https://www.tiwariacademy.com/ncert-solutions-class-6-social-science-chapter-8/