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Languages of India

This article is about the general overview of Indian languages. For historical context, see Linguistic history of India.
Not to be confused with Languages of the Indian subcontinent.

Languages of India
Official

(total of official languages: 23, including 22 8th Schedule languages and additional official language, English)

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Languages spoken in the Republic of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians;[5][6] both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages.[7][8][9][a] Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates.[10]: 283  According to the People's Linguistic Survey of India, India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840).[11] Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456.[12]

Article 343 of the Constitution of India stated that the official language of the Union is Hindi in Devanagari script, with official use of English to continue for 15 years from 1947. Later, a constitutional amendment, The Official Languages Act, 1963, allowed for the continuation of English alongside Hindi in the Indian government indefinitely until legislation decides to change it.[2] The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union are "the international form of Indian numerals",[13][14] which are referred to as Arabic numerals in most English-speaking countries.[1] Despite some misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India; the Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language.[15][16]

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages,[17] which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. This status is given to languages that have a rich heritage and independent nature.[citation needed]

According to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people.[18] Three contact languages have played an important role in the history of India in chronological order: Sanskrit,[19] Persian[20] and English.[21] Persian was the court language during the Indo-Muslim period in India and reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation.[22] English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government.[citation needed]

Hindi, which has the largest number of first-language speakers in India today,[23] serves as the lingua franca across much of northern and central India. However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed in South India, most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.[24][25] Some in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Punjab and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about imposition of Hindi.[26] Bengali is the second most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in eastern and northeastern regions. Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in the southwest,[27] followed closely by Telugu, which is most commonly spoken in southeastern areas.[28]

Hindi is the fastest growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri in the second place, with Meitei (officially called Manipuri) as well as Gujarati, in the third place, and Bengali in the fourth place, according to the 2011 census of India.[29]

According to the Ethnologue, India has 148 Sino-Tibetan, 140 Indo-European, 84 Dravidian, 32 Austro-Asiatic, 14 Andamanese, 5 Kra-Dai languages.[30]

  1. ^ a b c "Constitution of India". Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Official Language Act | Government of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology". meity.gov.in. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  3. ^ Salzmann, Zdenek; Stanlaw, James; Adachi, Nobuko (8 July 2014). Language, Culture, and Society: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Westview Press. ISBN 9780813349558 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "Official Language – The Union -Profile – Know India: National Portal of India". Archive.india.gov.in. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  5. ^ "Indo-Aryan languages". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Hindi languages". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  7. ^ Kak, Subhash (January 1996). "Indic Language Families and Indo-European". Yavanika. The Indic family has the sub-families of North Indian and Dravidian
  8. ^ Reynolds, Mike; Verma, Mahendra (2007), Britain, David (ed.), "Indic languages", Language in the British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 293–307, ISBN 978-0-521-79488-6, retrieved 4 October 2021
  9. ^ Kak, Subhash. "On The Classification Of Indic Languages" (PDF). Louisiana State University.
  10. ^ Moseley, Christopher (10 March 2008). Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-79640-2.
  11. ^ Seetharaman, G. (13 August 2017). "Seven decades after Independence, many small languages in India face extinction threat". The Economic Times.
  12. ^ "What countries have the most languages?". Ethnologue. 22 May 2019.
  13. ^ Aadithiyan, Kavin (10 November 2016). "Notes and Numbers: How the New Currency May Resurrect an Old Language Debate". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  14. ^ "Article 343 in The Constitution Of India 1949". Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  15. ^ Khan, Saeed (25 January 2010). "There's no national language in India: Gujarat High Court". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  16. ^ "Hindi, not a national language: Court". The Hindu. Ahmedabad. Press Trust of India. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  17. ^ Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constution [sic]. Archived 4 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Census2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Eaton, Richard M. (14 October 2020). "The Two Languages That Shaped the History of India". Literary Hub. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  20. ^ Abidi, S.A.H.; Gargesh, Ravinder (2008). "4. Persian in South Asia". In Kachru, Braj B. (ed.). Language in South Asia. Kachru, Yamuna & Sridhar, S.N. Cambridge University Press. pp. 103–120. ISBN 978-0-521-78141-1.
  21. ^ Bhatia, Tej K and William C. Ritchie. (2006) Bilingualism in South Asia. In: Handbook of Bilingualism, pp. 780-807. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
  22. ^ "Decline of Farsi language – The Times of India". The Times of India. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  23. ^ "Hindi mother tongue of 44% in India, Bangla second most spoken – The Times of India". The Times of India. 28 June 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  24. ^ Nehru, Jawaharlal; Gandhi, Mohandas (1937). The question of language: Issue 6 of Congress political and economic studies. K. M. Ashraf.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hardgrave1965 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "Maharashtra to join 'anti – Hindi' stir at Bengaluru". nagpurtoday.in.
  27. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  28. ^ "Telugu language | Origin, History, & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  29. ^ —"What census data reveals about use of Indian languages". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
    —"Hindi Added 100Mn Speakers In A Decade; Kashmiri 2nd Fast Growing Language". 28 June 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
    —"Hindi fastest growing language in India, finds 100 million new speakers".
    —"Hindi grew rapidly in non-Hindi states even without official mandate". India Today. 11 April 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  30. ^ "India". Ethnologue (Free All). Retrieved 26 November 2023.


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