Among the major tasks before us none is of greater importance for our strength and stability than the task of building up the unity and solidarity of our people. Our country has often stood as a solid rock in the face of common danger and there is a deep underlying unity which runs like a golden thread through all our seeming diversity.

Selected Speeches of Lal Bahadur Shastri, June 11, 1964 to January 10, 1966 (1974), p. 3