A society as “plural” as India cannot be sustained by uniformity of opinion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in his convocation address at St Xavier’s University on Saturday.

“A society as plural as ours cannot be sustained by uniformity of opinion. It is strengthened by disciplined management of differences,” Tharoor said.

“India’s future will not be written by slogans. It will be shaped by citizens prepared to combine skill with sensitivity, confidence with humility, and success with service,” said the Thiruvananthapuram MP at the Biswa Bangla auditorium.

Tharoor told graduating students that if the education they have received at the Jesuit institution has equipped them to do so, “then the promise of our democratic moment, our demographic moment, will not be squandered”.

“The future of our country will not be secured by rhetoric, but by responsibility and responsibility in action,” he added.

Tharoor, the chief guest at the convocation, received an honorary doctorate.

Himself a Xaverian, Tharoor highlighted the vital role of literature in nurturing democraticvalues.

“Literature teaches us to see complexity where others may see simplification, and empathy where others may settle for abstraction,” he said.

“In societies as diverse and argumentative as our own, such habits of mind are indispensable. They strengthen the qualities upon which any democracy depends: the ability to listen, to question, to dissent, and above all, to understand complexity,” he said.

Tharoor lauded St Xavier’s University for upholding love, freedom, liberty, justice, equality and fraternity.

“St Xavier’s University, Kolkata, has from the start upheld the conviction that the true purpose of learning is not only professional advancement, but the cultivation of ethical judgment and social awareness. Love, freedom, liberty, justice, equality, and fraternity are all co-equal here and are the foundation of the core values that we all share,” he said.

Underscoring the importance of education, Tharoor said, education “asks us to linger with evidence, to wrestle with nuance, and to recognise that truth is often layered rather than linear”.

“In that sense, education itself is a quiet subversion of the certainties that dominate our public discourse. It reminds us... The human experience cannot be reduced to slogans,” he said.

“We live in an age that rewards immediacy. Opinions are formed with the speed of a tweet. Outrage often travels faster than reflection. Yet serious study, whether in literature or any other discipline, insists upon patience,” said Tharoor.

Words matter, he said. “If this university has chosen to honour me with a degree in literature, I take it not simply as a recognition of the writing I’ve undertaken, but as an affirmation of a truth our times repeatedly remind us: words matter.”

“They matter because they frame our conversations, they matter because they influence our institutions, and they matter because they shape the moral climate of our society,” he added.

Father Felix Raj, vice-chancellor of the university, in his address, announced the commencement of the BTech programme from the 2026 academic session.

“MTech courses will be added in due course. The university also embarks on an array of courses, such as an integrated MBA, integratedBEd, school of design, school of nursing and a medical college,” he added.

As many as 1,052 postgraduate and undergraduate students and 25 PhD scholars received their degrees at Saturday’s convocation.