Celebrations of plurality, accepting the differences and accommodation of dissent was the way of life which India recognised in ancient times, President Pranab Mukherjee today said as he emphasised on "oneness" and quoted messages of Rabindranath Tagore.
Addressing a function here, Mukherjee said Tagore travelled all parts of the world and discovered eternal truth in humanity and tried to understand and realise the presence of unity in diversity.
"Celebrations of plurality, accepting the differences, accommodation of dissent was the way of life which India recognised for its ancient times. Even the differences are never ignored. They were recognised. They were accommodated," the President said referring to the message of unity by the Nobel laureate.
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He said Tagore truly was the product of that civilisation which believes in the continuous development of humanity, which will unfold itself in different circumstances, in differences and in different forms.
"As I mentioned earlier no distortions shall prevent it (civilisation) from reaching and ultimately realising the supreme truth and that truth is in oneness and in the unity that we value," Mukherjee said.
The President was speaking after receiving the first copies of two books--'Tagore's Vision of the Contemporary World' and 'Tagore and Russia'--published by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
They contain papers presented at international conferences organised by ICCR in New Delhi and Moscow in 2011 as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
Mukherjee said identification of the basis of unity in entire humanity irrespective of race and religion among others has been one of the cardinal philosophies of Tagore's work that included verse, proses and paintings.
The books were presented to Mukherjee by Prof Lokesh Chandra, president of ICCR. C Rajasekhar, Director General of ICCR and other dignitaries were present during the function held at auditorium in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
