India is a linguistically diverse country with several hundred languages spoken, primarily belonging to two major language families: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian.
Major Language Families and Distribution
- Indo-Aryan languages are spoken by about 78% of Indians, mainly in northern and central India.
- Dravidian languages are spoken by about 19.6% of Indians, primarily in southern India.
- Other languages belong to smaller families such as Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and Andamanese
Official and Scheduled Languages
- The Constitution of India recognizes 22 scheduled languages with official status and encouragement. These include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Punjabi, Assamese, Maithili, Sindhi, Nepali, Konkani, Dogri, Bodo, Santali, Kashmiri, Sanskrit, and Manipuri (Meitei)
- Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language of the Union government, with English as a subsidiary official language used indefinitely for official purposes
- There is no national language of India as per the Constitution
Most Spoken Languages by Number of Native Speakers (2011 Census)
- Hindi: approx. 528 million speakers (41.1%)
- Bengali: approx. 97 million speakers (8.1%)
- Marathi: approx. 83 million speakers (7%)
- Telugu: approx. 81 million speakers (7.2%)
- Tamil: approx. 69 million speakers (5.9%)
- Gujarati: approx. 55 million speakers (4.5%)
- Urdu: approx. 51 million speakers (5%)
- Kannada: approx. 44 million speakers (3.7%)
- Odia: approx. 38 million speakers (3.2%)
Other Notable Languages
- Punjabi, Maithili, Nepali, Sindhi, Dogri, Bodo, Santali, Kashmiri, and Manipuri have significant speaker bases and official recognition in various states
- English remains an important language in education, business, and government, ranking as the second official language and widely used across the country
Summary
India’s linguistic landscape is complex, with hundreds of languages spoken across the country. The Constitution recognizes 22 official languages, with Hindi and English playing key roles at the national level. Regional languages dominate in their respective states, reflecting India's rich cultural and linguistic diversity
