India celebrates it’s 64th year of independence from the British today, and it’s ironic to say that there are riots in Britain and the European Union is finally realizing that it can’t stay together.

It’s a wonder that India is staying together amid different dialects, languages and cultures. Travel a 100 miles and people’s attitudes, food habits, culture and language change. There are states steeped in poverty and those that have  some of the most literate folks worldwide. Sixty four years after the British left, how is India staying together while the European Union is waiting to split?

A currency cannot unite cultures, nor shared prosperity or the finer aspects of capitalism. What holds countries together is a shared passion for something that they earned together. In Europe, every country in the Union has it’s own culture. The prudent Germans may not be similar to the Italians, the Irish or the Greece. Uniting cultures that wish to stand on their own is difficult unless there is a common thread beyond trade and economic prosperity.

In India, an “Indianness” unites over a billion people-1618 languages, six religions, 6400 castes, 6 ethnic groups, 29 major festivals and one country.