ABSTRACT
Historically, streams of racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious groups have come into the Indian subcontinent over the centuries. They all contributed to the “Indian” civilization, but not necessarily to a unified civilization. Two images of cultural identity coexist: an organic identity, with internal integrity, characterized by spirituality, transcendence, and otherworldliness, and a composite identity, which views Indian traditions as synthetic and adaptive, with a pluralistic character, tolerant, and inclined towards peaceful coexistence.1 Both these images are constructs, invoked at different times to different ends. Both images fail to incorporate the underlying tensions in Indian society-the tensions underlying all multicultural populations.
