CBSE 6 Social Science Chapter 1 Understanding Diversity Notes

Understanding Diversity Notes

  • Diversity means having a lot of different things or people. For example, having many colours in a box of crayons.
  • When we talk about diversity in people, it means having people from different backgrounds, and different cultures, consuming different types of food, celebrating different festivals, and practicing different religions.
  • It’s a Beautiful Mixture of Similarities and Dissimilarities.

Understanding Diversity Questions and Answers

Making friends

  • The book tells a painful story of Sameer Ek and Sameer Do.
  • One is a school-going student, and the other is a newspaper seller. Every morning, the school-going Sameer is urged by the newspaper seller Sameer to buy his newspaper. A few days later they became friends.
  • The newspaper seller Sameer he does not know what a “subject” is. He has not been in the school ever, in spite of he has not loss his smile. He proudly proclaims that he has been working since he was a little child.
  • When The newspaper seller Sameer learns that the name of the school going boy is Sameer too, he finally says that the school goer is Sameer Ek and he is Sameer Do. 
  • a few days later riots erupted in The newspaper seller Sameer hometown Meerut. He looks sad and reveals that he is a Muslim Sameer and all his family members live in Meerut. 
  • Next day, Sameer Do was not there to greet Sameer Ek. Sameer Ek never saw his namesake ever again from that day.

The Difference Between Sameer Ek and Sameer Do

Sameer EkSameer Do
(1) He goes to school and knows English as well.(1) He is a newspaper seller, who is never enroll in school.
(2) He is a Hindu.(2) He is a Muslim.
(3) He was a native of Delhi.(3) He was a native of Meerut.

Understanding Diversity Questions and Answers

Caste System in India

  • In India, different people belong to different castes. 
  • This system creates inequality because the so-called “lower” caste people have to go on performing low paid jobs.
  • According to this, society was divided into different groups depending upon the work that people did, and they were supposed to remain in those groups.

DIVERSITY IN INDIA

  • India is a country of vast diversity. Not only the people but also the regions of these people live have different.
  • A little more than two hundred years ago or long before the train, aeroplane, bus or car became a part of our lives, people travelled from one part of the world to another, in ships, on horses, on camels or on foot.
  • Also, They used to move in search of new land or new locations or places where they could live and settle. Because travelling took a lot of time, they used to stay at one place for a longer period of time.
  • Many others left their homes because there were famines and drought and they could not get enough to eat. Some went in search of work while others left because there was a war.
  • Sometimes, as they began to make their homes in new places, people began to change a little and at other times they managed to do things in the old ways. So their languages, food,music, religions became a mix of the old and the new, and out of this intermixing of cultures, came something new and different.
  • Similarly diversity also comes about when people adapt their lives to the geographical area in which they live. For example living near the sea is quite different from living in a mountainous area.
  • Most of the things, are similar. Only we do them different way.
    Different way in which people pray.
    Different way in which people married.
    Different way in which people dress.
    Different way in which people greet each other.
    Different way in which people cook rice.
  • For example, Ladakh in the northern part of India has a cold climate and remains frozen in winters. The people of Ladakh follow Buddhism as their religion and their occupation involves cattle rearing and farming.
  • On the other hand, there is Kerala which is in the southern part of India and remains hot throughout the year. The people of Kerala follow Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Their occupation is farming too but the crops they grow are different from the ones grown by the people of Ladakh.
  • Even the terrain of India shows a huge diversity. The northern part is all mountains and the central part is all a plateau. There are deserts in the west and valleys in the east. There are beaches, mangrove forests, etc. according to the region you are visiting.
  • Though the two locations of Kerala and Ladakh are different from each other but at the same time they have some similarities as well. They both were influenced by the Arab as well as Chinese traders. The geography of the regions influenced their language, food habits, clothes, religions, trade, etc.

Understanding Diversity Questions and Answers

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

  • India’s diversity has always been recognised as a source of its strength.
  • People having diverse backgrounds took part in the freedom struggle against the britishers and won the struggle.
  • The song mentioned in the chapter was written after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and was sung  in the memory of the brave people.
  • Songs and symbols that emerged during the freedom struggle serve as a constant reminder of our country’s rich tradition of respect for diversity.
  • Indian flag was used as a symbol of protest against the British by people everywhere.
  • The first Prime Minister of the country i.e Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who coined the phrase, “unity in diversity” to describe the country.
  • India’s national anthem, composed by a poet from Bengal i.e Rabindranath Tagore, is another expression of the unity of India.

Understanding Diversity Questions and Answers

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