INA’s Model of Communal Harmony: A Way Forward Among Communal Tensions in India

India, despite being a small world with different cultures, religions, races and languages, has been living on the ideal of unity in diversity. This unity in diversity works on the twin principles; unity and harmony. India’s harmonious sociocultural edifice rests on some basic pillars; communal harmony, composite culture, syncretism, non-violence, common brotherhood, morality and social values, whose cementing materials are mutual trust, accommodation, adaptation, toleration, fraternity, mutual respect and progressive thought. These elements of Indian society form the base of the Indian nation and have always made India a living entity. The harmony and unity in diversity, now an international hallmark of India, has helped the country to keep up its vibrant journey and face all the odds coming with time and space. It was this unity and harmony that liberated India from colonial rule and it must be so to free India from all evils. India’s first army of liberation, Azad Hind Fauj, although primarily a revolutionary army formed to liberate India through armed revolution, was also an embodiment of unity and harmony. During its course, INA has also developed some models of unity and communal harmony which are always relevant to India, owing to their compatibility to the basic elements and tenets of Indian society. This piece of research presented here will focus on INA’s model of communal harmony vis-à-vis its relevance to contemporary and future India.