The process of national integration does not necessarily require monolingualism. The western, post-Versailles, intellectual heritage prompts contemporary sociologists to assume that cultural and linguistic differences automatically tend toward demands for nation formation and language recognition. Countries like India prove otherwise. Not all language differences that exist are noted, let alone ideologized. Conscious and even ideologized language differences need not be divisive. In the new nations of Africa and Asia, diglossia is extremely widespread and each language has its own functionally exlusive domain. Most new nations of Africa and Asia are not yet ethnic nations, which tends to reinforce diglossia conditions. African languages have rarely become symbolic of the quest for nationhood. Diglossia could easily remain a way of life for new nations. (VM)