So also a political scientist or a social scientist without knowledge of science and technology is also an incomplete scholar. Not that any one scholar can obtain deep knowledge of all subjects but there must be awareness, there must be consciousness of the inter-relationships between the various branches of knowledge in life. I should like to talk to you today something about India and something which links India and Turkey. We have been, in the modern period, able to sustain this pluralist nation through the mechanism and through the processes of democracy. Without it the different religious groups, linguistic groups, regional groups, and economic groups would not be able to play together in harmony.
Turkey is very similar to that.
In fact we derived something of the impulse for democracy and secularism from this great country, from the creator of this Republic, the great Ataturk. All our nationalist leaders fighting for our independence were inspired and enthused by the victory of the Turkish liberation movement and the transformation of Turkey from an empire into a democratic, secular State. We have, as I mentioned, a complex and composite society in India. And because of this great diversity Indian history has been a search for unity. That unity was not conceived as something imposed upon from outside, a standardization of its strength or even of beliefs.