Symmetry and invariance principles have played a vital role in the development of physics. And just about as ubiquitous as symmetry is the spontaneous breaking of symmetry. In particular, broken symmetry is the basic underlying concept of condensed-matter physics. Crystal growth and other phase transitions are phenomena involving spontaneous breaking of symmetry. Generalised rigidity, as also topological defects like dislocations, are some of the consequences of the breaking of symmetry involved in the formation of a crystal from the highly symmetric fluid phase. The Curie principle, or rather its generalisation called the Curie-Shubnikov principle, is the basic symmetry principle of physics. Of particular interest is the application of this principle to composite objects made up of equal parts (crystals are examples of such composite objects because they are made up of equal parts called unit cells). For such objects the possibility of the manifestation of a new type of symmetry called latent symmetry has been pointed out recently by the speaker in his book on ferroic materials. Latent symmetry is that unexpected extra symmetry which can arise sometimes when two or more identical objects combine to form a composite in a specific way. The notion of partial symmetry is familiar in crystallography: it is a local symmetry, rather than a global symmetry. Subunits of the object may be related by a partial symmetry, but the object as a whole does not have that symmetry. By contrast, latent symmetry is that partial symmetry of a subunit of the basic components of a composite made up of equal parts which is also a global symmetry of the composite.