New Delhi, Jul 29 (IANS): Communalism and terrorism were "big challenges" to national integrity and needed to be fought collectively, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Friday.

Manmohan Singh, who was addressing a gathering at the National Communal Harmony Award distribution function here, said "some elements in society" were promoting communal disharmony that need to be defeated.

"We have to face these challenges together. We have to create awareness towards this," the prime minister said in his address in Hindi.

"Communal brotherhood forms a large part of our age old traditions. We have to keep up with this legacy. This is our pious duty," Manmohan Singh said at the event also attended by Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani.

Vice President Hamid Ansari gave away the awards for the year 2009-10 to Mohammad Hanif Khan Shastri, who has written seven books on Hindu-Muslim unity in India. Khan got the award in the individual category.

The Center for Human Rights and Social Welfare got the award in the organisational category. The Rajasthan-based NGO is known to have organised interfaith dialogues and rallies to promote communal harmony and national integration in the country.