Pune: Emphasising India’s plural identity, MP and author Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said that those advocating “one nation, one election, one party, one leader, one national language” must remember that diversity is India’s true strength. Speaking at the Symbiosis Literary Festival at Symbiosis Ishanya Auditorium, he said, “The stories we tell about India and about ourselves, the future we build and the story we shape today must reflect our pluralism, our multiplicity, and the dignity of every one of us.”
He highlighted the transformative power of language, literature, and storytelling in shaping both contemporary India and the global imagination.
Tharoor said, “I love being in Pune because there are so many readers here.”
He drew a connection between liberal arts and societal tolerance, recounting a study by Oxford University which examined terrorist incidents across the world. The study found that 97% of identified terrorists had engineering backgrounds, a statistic he described as “deeply worrying”. “The only explanation,” Tharoor said, “is that engineering teaches you a black-and-white approach to life, the switch is either on or off. Hence, engineers should also study liberal arts.”
Tharoor described India as “a land of many words and hundreds of dialects”.
He defended India’s embrace of English. “English is no longer the language of the coloniser,” he said. “It’s the language of the Constitution, of the courts, of aspiration. It connects those of us who don’t share each other’s Indian languages, and it is also our bridge to the world.” He said India’s linguistic future must be plural, not hierarchical and his own worldview was shaped by India’s diversity.
Tharoor lamented the decline of reading habits among youth. “I meet many parents who say their children don’t read, and that truly worries me,” he said. He cited research showing that the ability to engage with long and complex texts is deteriorating due to the rise of short-form digital consumption like WhatsApp forwards.
{{/usCountry}}Tharoor lamented the decline of reading habits among youth. “I meet many parents who say their children don’t read, and that truly worries me,” he said. He cited research showing that the ability to engage with long and complex texts is deteriorating due to the rise of short-form digital consumption like WhatsApp forwards.
{{/usCountry}}“Our writers are winning not just prizes but readers. They shape how the world sees India not merely as a rising economy but as a thinking, feeling, storytelling civilization.”
Tharoor added that nations are built not only on policies but on narratives. “What stories do we tell about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going?” he asked, invoking India’s freedom struggle, reformers, poets, Dalit autobiographies, and tribal stories as “stitches in our national fabric”.
He urged policymakers to invest not only in technology, but in language and translation.