India, Dec. 14 -- The global recognition of Diwali-Deepavali-by UNESCO is not merely an acknowledgment of a festival. It is the recognition of a civilizational philosophy that has endured for millennia: that light is not a weapon, but a shared moral responsibility. At a moment when the world stands fractured by ideological polarization, cultural absolutism, and geopolitical anxiety, India's ancient festival of illumination arrives as a quiet but powerful counterargument.

Diwali has long been described as the victory of light over darkness, truth over falsehood, good over evil. Yet such formulations, while evocative, barely touch the depth of what the festival represents within India's historical and cultural imagination. Diwali is not a ...