The National Integration Council (NIC) is a group of senior politicians and public figures in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

that looks for ways to address the problems of

communalism Communalism may refer to: * Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations * , a historical method that follows the development of communities * Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...

, casteism and regionalism. Council members include cabinet ministers, entrepreneurs, celebrities, media heads, chief ministers, and opposition leaders. The 2013 council was chaired by Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

, and its members included movie star

Jaya Bachchan Jaya Bachchan (''Birth name, née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, serving four terms since 2004. Known primarily for her work in Hindi ...

, cardinal

Baselios Cleemis Baselios Cleemis (born 15 June 1959) is the current major archbishop-catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He was named to the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI on 24 November 2012. At the moment of hi ...

, news editors:

Shobhana Bhartia Shobhana Bhartia (born 4 January 1957) is an Indian businesswoman. She is the chairperson and editorial director of the HT Media, one of India's largest newspapers and media houses, which she inherited from her father. She has also recently take ...

Siddharth Varadarajan Siddharth Varadarajan (born 1965) is a journalist and editor in India. He was a former editor of the English language national daily ''The Hindu'', and is one of the founding editors of the Indian digital news portal ''The Wire'', along with ...

Aroon Purie Aroon Purie (born 1944) is the founder-publisher and editor-in-chief of ''India Today'', and former chief executive of the India Today Group. He is the managing director of Thomson Press (India) Limited and the chairman and managing director of ...

Barkha Dutt Barkha Dutt is an Indian television journalist and author. She has been a reporter and news anchor at NDTV and Tiranga TV. She currently runs her own digital news channel called 'MoJo Story'. She is also an opinion columnist with ''The Hindus ...

, political leaders;

Rajnath Singh Rajnath Singh (; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician serving as the Defence Minister of India. He is currently the Deputy Leader of the House Lok Sabha. He is the former President of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has previously served as t ...

, Kumari Mayawati, Bhim Singh,

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

, and billionaires;

Anand Mahindra Anand Gopal Mahindra (born 1 May 1955) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based business conglomerate. The group operates in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket, automotive, components, construc ...

Rajashree Birla Rajashree Birla is an Indian philanthropist. She was married to Aditya Birla (scion of the Birla family of business magnates). After her husband's death in 1995, Rajashree began working in CSR and charity sectors, developing a large philanthr ...

Cyrus Mistry Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (4 July 1968 – 4 September 2022) was an Indian businessman. He was the chairman of the Tata Group, an Indian business conglomerate, from 2012 to 2016. He was the sixth chairman of the group, and only the second (af ...

, and

Azim Premji Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, who was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman. He is informally known as ...

Origin

The National Integration Council originated in a conference convened by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

in September–October 1961. The purpose was to find ways to counter problems that were dividing the country including attachment to specific communities, castes, religions and languages. The conference set up the NIC to review national integration issues and make recommendations. The NIC met for the first time in June 1962. The fourteenth meeting was held in New Delhi on 13 October 2008. The fifteenth meeting was held on 10 September 2011 in New Delhi. The latest meeting (sixteenth meeting) was held on 23 September 2013. The NIC was reconstituted and met again in August 2005. The new council had 103 members. The inaugural meeting was attended by Prime Minister

and

Congress Party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

leader

. Twelve Chief Ministers and twelve Union Ministers attended, as did leaders of all the main political parties. The NIC met in October 2008 soon after the

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...

(UPA) government had taken office. In this special meeting chaired by Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, the NIC raised its voice against spreading anti-Christian violence in India. In April 2010 the council was reconstituted with 147 members, again chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The fifteenth meeting was scheduled in Delhi for 10 September 2011. The agenda included discussion of measures to eliminate discrimination, promote communal harmony and curb communalism and communal violence. The attendees were also to discuss ways in which the state and police should handle civil disturbances and ways to curb radicalization of youth in the name of religion and caste. The Communal Violence Bill came under attack at the meeting, with

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

leaders saying the bill would encourage rather than curb communalism and that the bill unjustly assumed that in a riot the majority was always at fault. On 19 October 2010 the government established a standing committee of the National Integration Council. Home Minister

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

was appointed chairman and four Union Ministers and nine Chief Ministers were appointed members. The committee would decide on agenda items for future council meetings. Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos has been nominated as a Member of the National Integration Council under category IX (Eminent Public Figures). The National Integration Council under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister was reconstituted on 28 October 2013.

References

{{Authority control Human rights in India 1962 establishments in India Nehru administration Councils of India

Integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...