Official Languages
The official languages of the Republic of India are Standard Hindi (41% of the country speaks Standard Hindi or another Hindi dialect) and English. According to the article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India, "The Official Language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." The individual states can legislate their own official languages, depending on their linguistic demographics. For example, the state of Maharashtra has Marathi as its sole official language, the state of Punjab has Punjabi as its sole official language, the state of Andhra Pradesh has Telugu as its sole official language, the state of Orissa has Oriya as its sole official language, the state of Tamil Nadu has Tamil as its sole official language, the state of Karnataka has Kannada as its sole official language and the state of Kerala has Malayalam as its sole official language, while the state of Jammu and Kashmir has Kashmiri, Urdu, and Dogri as its official languages.
Article 345 of the constitution authorizes the several states of India to adopt as "official languages" of that state — which people of that state can then use in all dealings with all branches of the local, state and federal governments — either Standard Hindi or any one or more of the languages spoken in that state. Until the Twenty-First Amendment of the Constitution in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. The Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion of Sindhi, Konkani, Meiteilon and Nepali, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18. At present there are 22 official languages of India. Individual states, whose borders are mostly drawn on socio-linguistic lines, are free to decide their own language for internal administration and education.
The following table lists the official languages, aside from English, set out in the eighth schedule as of May 2008:
| Language | Family | Speakers |
State(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assamese/Axomiya | Indo-Aryan, Eastern | 013 13 | Assam, Arunachal Pradesh |
| Bengali | Indo-Aryan, Eastern | 083 83 | West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar Islands |
| Bodo | Tibeto-Burman | 0014 1.4 | Assam |
| Dogri | Indo-Aryan, Northwestern | 0023 2.3 | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Gujarati | Indo-Aryan, Western | 046 46 | Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat |
| Hindi | Indo-Aryan, Central | 258 258–422 | Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, the national capital territory of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand |
| Kannada | Dravidian | 038 38 | Karnataka |
| Kashmiri | Indo-Aryan, Dardic | 0055 5.5 | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Konkani | Indo-Aryan, Southern | 0025 2.5–7.6 | Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala |
| Maithili | Indo-Aryan, Eastern | 012 12–32 | Bihar |
| Malayalam | Dravidian | 033 33 | Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Pondicherry |
| Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) | Tibeto-Burman | 0015 1.5 | Manipur |
| Marathi | Indo-Aryan, Southern | 072 72 | Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Madhya Pradesh |
| Nepali | Indo-Aryan, Northern | 0029 2.9 | Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam |
| Oriya | Indo-Aryan, Eastern | 033 33 | Orissa |
| Punjabi | Indo-Aryan, Northwestern | 029 29 | Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab |
| Sanskrit | Indo-Aryan | 00001 0.01 | non-regional |
| Santhali | Munda | 0065 6.5 | Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa) |
| Sindhi | Indo-Aryan, Northwestern | 0025 2.5 | non-regional |
| Tamil | Dravidian | 061 61 | Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Pondicherry |
| Telugu | Dravidian | 074 74 | Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry |
| Urdu | Indo-Aryan, Central | 052 52 | Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand |
Read more about this topic: Languages Of India
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