Languages of India
India is one of the most linguistically rich nations on Earth. The Constitution recognises 22 languages in its Eighth Schedule, and 11 languages have been declared classical.
| Official language of the Union | Hindi in Devanagari script (Article 343). English continues to be used for official purposes under the Official Languages Act, 1963 |
|---|---|
| Eighth Schedule | 22 languages. 14 were in the original Constitution (1950); Sindhi was added in 1967, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali in 1992, and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali in 2003 |
| Classical languages | Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu and Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014), and Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali (2024) |
| Census 2011 | 121 languages (22 scheduled and 99 others) and 270 mother tongues, each spoken by 10,000 or more people, grouped from 19,569 raw mother-tongue returns |
| Language families | Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, and others such as Tai-Kadai and Great Andamanese |
| Days to celebrate | Hindi Diwas (14 September) and Bharatiya Bhasha Diwas (11 December, the birth anniversary of the poet Subramania Bharati) |
Learning in your own language
The National Education Policy 2020 encourages teaching in the mother tongue or home language at least up to Grade 5, wherever possible. The three-language formula helps every child learn more than one Indian language.
Protecting endangered languages
Many tribal and smaller languages are spoken by only a few thousand people. The Central Institute of Indian Languages (Mysuru) runs the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages, which records and documents them. If your family speaks a language that is disappearing, share words, songs or stories in the Preserve section.