So much unity — thanks, Aadhaar!

Diversity can give even the strongest of leaders a severe migraine. That could be the reason why a nation born of — and sworn to preserving and protecting — dizzyingly diverse people, languages, faiths and beliefs is now being herded towards the path of a problematic unity. The means are being meant to mirror the end. An entire state has been made to vanish in the air in the name of oneness with the nation. Food and faith are two other areas in which India, it has been alleged, is being forced to celebrate the notion of homogeneity. Those who have resisted and spoken up in favour of the beauty and importance of differences have got themselves branded as unpatriotic for their trouble.