One Nation, Many Chapters: How a Journey Brings Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat to Life
BY ADMIN PUBLISHED October 3, 2026 , UPDATED October 12, 2026
Ask a student what Kerala tastes like or how Assamese sounds, and the answer will most likely come from a textbook. It is a good place to start, but rarely where real understanding begins.
India holds countless stories within its borders: in the languages we speak, the food we cook, the festivals we celebrate and the landscapes we call home. Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (EBSB), launched by the Government of India on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, 31 October 2015, sees this diversity as a reason to come closer rather than drift apart. The initiative pairs States and Union Territories, inviting people to discover one another's culture through language, literature, music, cuisine, sport, tourism and everyday traditions.
At its heart lies a simple belief: we understand our country better when we understand each other better.
From the Page to the Place
In schools, EBSB has encouraged students to explore the customs, languages, art and heritage of states beyond their own, and even to pick up words from languages they may never have heard at home. These are valuable steps towards linguistic awareness and mutual respect. Yet a classroom can only take students so far.
A textbook can describe a region; a journey lets a student step into it. When young people walk through a historic site, hear a new dialect in a local market, share a regional meal or watch a tradition unfold before them, India stops being a set of chapters to memorise. It becomes a living, connected country they have seen with their own eyes.
A Classroom Without Walls
This is the idea behind the Educational Experiential Learning Journey at Delhi Public School Ghaziabad. Over 8 days, students of Grades 6 to 12 travel across 5 states, and every stop becomes a lesson. History comes alive at a monument. Geography takes shape in the changing landscape outside the window. Language is heard in everyday conversation, and culture is discovered through the people who live it.
The journey builds far more than knowledge. It nurtures curiosity, adaptability, keen observation and empathy. Students learn to ask better questions, adjust to unfamiliar surroundings and respect perspectives different from their own. Learning becomes something they take part in, not something they simply receive, and it stays with them long after they return home.
In Step with NEP 2020
The initiative also reflects the vision of the National Education Policy 2020, which calls for learning that is experiential, holistic and multidisciplinary. EBSB offers schools a natural way to bring these ideas to life, connecting classroom learning with the culture, travel and real-world encounters that give it meaning.
Unity Without Uniformity
Perhaps the most important lesson EBSB offers is that unity does not require sameness. India does not hold together because its people are alike; it holds together because they can live alongside, and learn from, those who are different.
For schools, this sets a meaningful task: helping students see that the India beyond their neighbourhood is not a distant place, but another chapter of the same story. Through the Educational Experiential Learning Journey, DPS Ghaziabad invites its students to read that story first-hand: one state, one conversation and one discovery at a time.
