Read the passage and answer the following question.
Regionalism in India is rooted in India's diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions. It is also encouraged by the geographical concentration of these identity workers in particular regions and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments.
After independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement, dividing India into large provinces, also called 'presidencies'. These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called the Union of India. Language coupled with regional and tribal identity - and not religion - has therefore provided the most powerful instrument for the formation of ethno-national identity in India.
The term used for addressing the existence of diversity of languages is :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Multi-lingual
Option (1) Multi-lingual — Correct. Multilingual means having many languages. The passage calls the old presidencies large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states, because people speaking many languages lived within each of them.
Option (2) Multicultural — Incorrect. Multicultural means having many cultures living together in one society or state. Language is only one part of culture, so this term does not name the diversity of languages as such.
Option (3) Multi-ethnic — Incorrect. Multi-ethnic means having many ethnic groups, communities that see themselves as sharing a common descent and culture. The passage uses it beside ‘multilingual’ for a different kind of diversity.
Option (4) Mono-lingual — Incorrect. Mono-lingual means having only one language, the opposite of a diversity of languages.
NCERT (2025-26): “6.2 Regionalism in the Indian Context … After Independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement dividing India into large provinces, also called ‘presidencies’. (Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta were the three major presidencies; incidentally, all three cities after which the presidencies were named have changed their names recently). These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called the Union of India. Soon after the adoption of the Constitution, all these units of the colonial era had to be reorganised into ethno-linguistic States within the Indian union in response to strong popular agitations.…” |