This is a counterbalance to undifferentiated and rigid arguments for cultural specificity and uniqueness which increasingly tend to become a political weapon. Scholarship and Science have to take this seriously. In the context of the problem of construction of cultures, the importance of the critique of 'monadology' would require emphasis. Seeing cultures as processes gives an insight into the normality of multicultural and multilingual contexts. The national argument in the language-oriented variant that Herder gave us is thus historicized and understood as a special case.
Identity is a complex phenomenon and can be thought of and constructed only in the plural.
Even its strategic use comes into the picture. The implications for the concept of tolerance and especially for the discussion on tolerance and toleration are obvious. Literature, and increasingly even literary studies, are discussing this now. Hence also the dismissal of the discourse on authenticity. The type of functioning multilingualism in India for instance, is difficult to define and a behaviouristic model of 'code switching' would hardly help in comprehending it.