How many are correct about India's linguistic states?
(A) They let India escape a worse fate.
(B) Ignoring language aspirations risked one language, four or five nations.
(C) They sometimes quarrel with each other.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Only two
(A) They let India escape a worse fate. — Correct. Forming linguistic states allowed India to escape an even worse fate. Language-based states helped strengthen Indian unity instead of breaking it.
(B) Ignoring language aspirations risked one language, four or five nations. — Incorrect. The number is changed. If language aspirations had been ignored, India might have had 'One language, fourteen or fifteen nations'.
(C) They sometimes quarrel with each other. — Correct. States based on language do sometimes quarrel with each other. These disputes are not pretty, but they could have been far worse.
NCERT (2026-27): “6.2 Regionalism in the Indian Context … “It is the formation of linguistic states that has allowed India to escape an even worse fate. If the aspirations of the Indian language communities had been ignored, what we might have had here was – “One language, fourteen or fi fteen nations.”” |