This slim volume brings together the lectures I had given in earlier years on some of the long range problems that have stood in the way of India's national integration, which is largely a crisis in values. The talks are reproduced more or less in their original form and cover the Indian Language Problem, Social Planning, a New Approach to Indian Economic Planning, and Union-State relations. I have also added a post-script of brief comments on some of the other problems connected with national integration such as secularism, composite Indian culture, educational reform, life styles, socio-economic in- equality, and the value system.

Secularism, national integration, and social harmony all appear to be undergoing a great deal of stress and strain in their influence on people's behaviour, and divisive forces of communalism, casteism, linguism, regionalism and socio-economic inequality seem to be gaining in strength. The suggestions I have made for dealing with them are perhaps too idealistic and difficult of implementation in a short period. Nevertheless I have ventured to have them published because of my belief that national integration is essentially a value problem which needs to be thought of in long range terms. We should avoid getting bogged down by resorting to short term measures of expediency which may not fit in with the long range solutions of the problem.

I am grateful to the various institutions under whose auspices these lectures were delivered, for permission to have them reproduced in book form. Thus, my thanks are due to the authorities of the Hindustani Prachar Sabha and the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Research Centre and Library, Bombay (the Language Problem), Delhi University (Dr Ambedkar Memorial Lectures on Social Planning). Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi (the T. T. Krishnamachari lecture on a New Approach to Indian Planning). and the All India Seminar on Centre-State Relations, Bangalore (Keynote address on Centre-State Relations).