A country where people speak different languages, follow different religions,…

Concept

In describing a society, the prefix multi- marks plurality along a stated dimension, the prefix mono- marks a single instance of it, and the word uniform asserts sameness across the population. So multilingual means many languages are in use, multireligious means many faiths are practised, and multicultural means many cultural traditions coexist within one population.

Application

The stem names three pluralities existing together in the same country: different languages, different religions and diverse cultural practices. Attaching the matching prefix to each stated dimension gives many languages to multilingual, many religions to multireligious, and many cultural practices to multicultural, so all three labels apply to the same country at once.

Cross-check

• Monolingual and monocultural asserts a single language and a single cultural tradition, which reverses the plurality the stem states.

• Uniform in culture and religion asserts sameness of culture and religion, which again reverses the diversity the stem states.

• Hierarchical and caste-based describes how a society ranks its members into graded hereditary groups; that is an axis of social stratification and reports nothing about how many languages, religions or cultural traditions are present.

Such a country is therefore described as multilingual, multireligious and multicultural, the description commonly applied to India and summed up in the phrase unity in diversity.