Languages spoken in 

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,[6][7] both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages.[8][9][10] 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.[11]: 283  India has the world's fourth highest number of
languages (447), after Nigeria (524), Indonesia (710) and Papua New Guinea (840).[12] The Indian
subcontinent is home to the third most spoken language in the world, Hindi-Urdu; the sixth most
spoken language, Bengali; and the thirteenth most spoken language, Punjabi.[12]
Article 343 of the Indian Constitution 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 the 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. Classical language status is
given to languages which have a rich heritage and independent nature.
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 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] Two contact
languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian[19] and English.
[20]
 Persian was the court language during the Mughal period in India. It reigned as an administrative
language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation.[21] English continues to be an
important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian
government. Hindi, which has the largest number of first-language speakers in India today,[22] serves
as the lingua franca across much of North and Central India. Bengali is the second most spoken and
understood language in the country with a significant amount of speakers
in eastern and northeastern regions. Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in
the country with a significant amount of speakers in South-Western regions. [23] 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] Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Punjab and other non-Hindi regions
have also started to voice concerns about Hindi. [26]

Contents

 1History
 2Inventories
o 2.1Census of India figures
 3Multilingualism
o 3.12011 Census India
o 3.2Ethnologue (2019, 22nd edition) worldwide
 4Language families
o 4.1Indo-Aryan language family
 o 4.2Dravidian language family
o 4.3Austroasiatic language family
o 4.4Tibeto-Burman language family
o 4.5Tai-Kadai language family
o 4.6Great Andamanese language family
o 4.7Language isolates
 5Official languages
o 5.1Federal level
 5.1.1Hindi
 5.1.2English
o 5.2Scheduled languages
 6Prominent languages of India
o 6.1Hindi
o 6.2Bengali
o 6.3Marathi
o 6.4Telugu
o 6.5Tamil
o 6.6Urdu
o 6.7Gujarati
o 6.8Kannada
o 6.9Malayalam
o 6.10Odia
o 6.11Punjabi
o 6.12Assamese
o 6.13Maithili
 7Classical languages of India
o 7.1Benefits
 8Other local languages and dialects
o 8.1Practical problems
 9Language conflicts
 10Writing systems
 11See also
 12Notes
 13References
 14External links

History
Main article: Linguistic history of India
Further information: Persian language in the Indian subcontinent
The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family. The Dravidian languages are
indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. [27] Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th
millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. [28] The
Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central
(Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada).[29]
The Northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved
from Old Indo-Aryan by way of the Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of
the Middle Ages. The Indo-Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-
Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE) and New Indo-
Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE). The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved
into distinct, recognisable languages in the New Indo-Aryan Age. [30]
Persian, or Farsi, was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as
the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal
dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced the art, history and literature of the region for more than
500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the
British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative
purposes and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with
Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative
purposes with Devanagari.[19][31]
Each of the northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was
strongly influenced by Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, leading to the emergence of Modern Standard
Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language. Bangla on the other hand
has retained its Sanskritic roots while heavily expanding its vocabulary with words from Persian,
English, French and other foreign languages.[32][33]

Inventories
Main article: List of languages by number of native speakers in India
The first official survey of language diversity in the Indian subcontinent was carried out by Sir
George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled the Linguistic Survey of India, it reported a total
of 179 languages and 544 dialects.[34] However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in
distinguishing between "dialect" and "language", [34] use of untrained personnel and under-reporting of
data from South India, as the former provinces of Burma and Madras, as well as the princely states
of Cochin, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore were not included in the survey. [35]
Different sources give widely differing figures, primarily based on how the terms "language" and
"dialect" are defined and grouped. Ethnologue, produced by the Christian evangelist
organisation SIL International, lists 461 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 447 of which are
living, while 14 are extinct. The 447 living languages are further subclassified in Ethnologue as
follows:[36][37]

 Institutional – 63
 Developing – 130
 Vigorous – 187
 In trouble – 54
 Dying – 13
The People's Linguistic Survey of India, a privately owned research institution in India, has recorded
over 66 different scripts and more than 780 languages in India during its nationwide survey, which
the organisation claims to be the biggest linguistic survey in India. [38]
The People of India (POI) project of Anthropological Survey of India reported 325 languages which
are used for in-group communication by 5,633 Indian communities. [39]

Census of India figures

The Census of India records and publishes data with respect to the number of speakers for
languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing
between language and mother tongue. The mother tongues are grouped within each language.
Many of the mother tongues so defined could be considered a language rather than a dialect by
linguistic standards. This is especially so for many mother tongues with tens of millions of speakers
that are officially grouped under the language Hindi.
1951 Census
Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were
intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such as East Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, PEPSU,
and Bilaspur.[40]
1961 Census
The 1961 census recognised 1,652 mother tongues spoken by 438,936,918 people, counting all
declarations made by any individual at the time when the census was conducted. [41] However, the
declaring individuals often mixed names of languages with those of dialects, subdialects and dialect
clusters or even castes, professions, religions, localities, regions, countries and nationalities. [41] The
list therefore includes languages with barely a few individual speakers as well as 530 unclassified
mother tongues and more than 100 idioms that are non-native to India, including linguistically
unspecific demonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian".[41]
1991 Census
The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues. [42] According to the 1991 census, 22
languages had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more
than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of
a total of 838 million Indians in 1991).[42][43]
2001 Census
As per the census of 2001, there are 1635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother
tongues and 22 major languages.[18] Of these, 29 languages have more than a million native
speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers. [44] There are
a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers
in Coorg (Kodagu).[45]
2011 Census
According to the most recent census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit and
rationalization on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliation, the census recognizes 1369 rationalized mother
tongues and 1474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue
category.[46] Among, the 1369 rationalized mother tongues which are spoken by 10,000 or more
speakers, are further grouped into appropriate set that resulted into total 121 languages. In these
121 languages, 22 are already part of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and other 99
are termed as "Total of other languages" which is one short as of the other languages recognized in
2001 census.[47]