According to Ramachandra Guha, what has been the effect of the formation of linguistic states on India?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → It has helped strengthen Indian unity
Option (1) It has hastened a further subdivision of India — Incorrect. This was the fear of many leaders, including Nehru, in the early 1950s. Guha argues that the reverse has happened, so it is not the effect he describes.
Option (2) It has helped strengthen Indian unity — Correct. Guha holds that linguistic states, far from weakening Indian unity, have helped strengthen it. Meeting the demands of language groups let India escape the worse fate of breaking into many nations.
Option (3) It has made regional identities hard to combine with being Indian — Incorrect. Guha holds the opposite: one can be Kannadiga and Indian, or Tamil and Indian, at the same time. Regional and national identities sit together without strain.
Option (4) It has replaced regional loyalties with national ones — Incorrect. Regional loyalties did not disappear under linguistic states. People keep their language identity and are Indian as well, so neither loyalty replaces the other.
NCERT (2026-27): “6.2 Regionalism in the Indian Context … “Adapted from an article by Ramachandra Guha in the Times of India, 1 November 2006.” |