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Languages with legal status in India

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India has a diverse list of spoken languages among different groups of people. At least 800 different languages and around 2000 dialects have been identified. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages of communication for the Central (Federal) government. The state governments use their own language along with English for communication with the Central government. For example, the central government sends its information in Hindi and English to the state of Karnataka and this state communicates back in Kannada and English. Information from the center to Tamil Nadu is in English and Hindi and this state communicates back in Tamil and English. India has a list of 23 official languages (including Hindi and English). These languages are entitled to representation on the Official Language Commission, and a candidate in an examination conducted for national government service may opt to take the exam in any of these languages.

Neither the constitution nor the laws of India accord the status of "National Language" to any language in India[1]. Indian law states that no language will be made the National Language unless and until all the constituent states of the Union of India accept it. Out of the 28 states and 7 union territories, only 10 states and 3 union territories have Hindi as the principal official language.

Article 343 of the India Constitution states that the official language of the Union (India) shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. As drafted in the constitution in 1950, English ceased to exist as an official language (on par with Hindi) in 1965, after which it was intended to continue as an "associate additional official language" until such time that a duly appointed committee can decide on a full-scale transition to Hindi, based on a periodic review. However, due to protests from South Indian states where there is low Hindi penetration, the "twin language" system is still in vogue. Due to rapid industrialization, and a bustling multinational influence in the economy, English continues to be a popular and influential means of communication in the government and day-to-day business, and moves to replace it have effectively been shelved.

Official languages - Central Government

'Two languages are the languages used by the central administration:'

  1. Hindi is the language used by the Central Government when communicating with the states of the Hindi Belt. It is also the official language of Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.
  2. English is also an official language and the language to be used while communicating with the states.

Official languages - State Governments

States

Union Territories

Official languages of India

Apart from Hindi and English, a total of 21 other languages are recognized as official languages by the Constitution of India:

  1. Assamese — official language of Assam
  2. Bengali — official language of Tripura and West Bengal
  3. Bodo — official language of Assam
  4. Dogri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
  5. Gujarati — official language of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Gujarat
  6. Kannada — official language of Karnataka
  7. Kashmiri — official language of Jammu and Kashmir
  8. Konkani — official language of Goa
  9. Maithili - official language of Bihar
  10. Malayalam — official language of Kerala, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep
  11. Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) — official language of Manipur
  12. Marathi — official language of Maharashtra and Goa
  13. Nepali — official language of Sikkim
  14. Oriya — official language of Orissa
  15. Punjabi — official language of Punjab and Chandigarh, second official language of Delhi and Haryana
  16. Sanskrit — language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, required teaching in many schools
  17. Santhali - language of the Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh)
  18. Sindhi - language of the Sindhi community
  19. Tamil — official language of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
  20. Telugu — official language of Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry
  21. Urdu — official language of Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh

Other important state languages

These languages serve as the official languages within particular states although they are not yet recognized as official languages by the national Constitution:

  1. Kokborok - official language of Tripura
  2. Mizo - official language of Mizoram
  3. Khasi - official language of Meghalaya
  4. Garo - official language of Meghalaya
  5. French - official language of Pondicherry.

These languages have over 5 million speakers but no official status. Many are often considered by locals to be varieties of Hindi.

Bihari languages

These three Bihari languages also have over 5 million speakers but no official status. They were once mistakenly thought to be dialects of Hindi, but have been more recently shown to be descendants of the Eastern Group of Indic languages, along with Bengali, Assamese, and Oriya.

  1. Angika — language of Bihar, spoken largely in the northern and southern part of Bihar, most of Jharkhand, and the Maldah district of West Bengal
  2. Bhojpuri — language of Bihar
  3. Magadhi — language of southern Bihar

Rajasthani

Rajasthani is spoken in state of Rajasthan by more than fifty million people. There is a dialect continuum across the various districts where Rajasthani is spoken, but most people can communicate with each other even if they are from different districts and have different dialects. Many speakers can also speak in Hindi, and there are many who consider Rajasthani to be a dialect of Hindi. The main varieties of Rajasthani are as follows:

  1. Marwari — language of Marwar. The region including Jodhpur, Nagour and Bikaner.
  2. Mewari — language of Mewar. The region including Udaipur, Chittor and Kota-Bundi.
  3. Shekhavati — language of Shekhavati. The region including Sikar, Churu, Jhunjhunu.

Other languages

  1. Haryanvi - Hindi dialect of Haryana
  2. Bhili (Bhil tribals)
  3. Gondi (Gond tribals)
  4. Kodava, spoken in the Kodagu district of Karnataka
  5. Kutchi — language of Kutch, a region in Gujarat
  6. Tulu — spoken by Tulu people of Karnataka and Kerala
  7. Sankethi — spoken by Sankethi people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

The Constitution of India lists 22 regional languages.

Minority languages of India

These languages have fewer than one million speakers:

  1. Mahl — language of the island of Minicoy in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep.

Pondicherry

In the the territories of Pondicherry, a former French colony, French is still one of the official languages. So, French is taught in Schools and Colleges.

Goa, Daman and Diu

In the state of Goa and in the territories of Daman and Diu, Portuguese is still spoken by a minority of the population, though it has no official status. The same is also true, to a lesser degree, in the territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. All these areas were formerly part of Portuguese India.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/const.html
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