Indian Languages-Principal Languages of India

Principal Languages of India

India has 22 languages which have been given the grade of National Languages.

Assamese :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language and is the official language of Assam.

Bengali :

• It is one of the leading Indo-Aryan language and is die official language of W. Bengal-Gujarati.
• It is an Indo-Aryan language and is the official language of Gujarat.

Hindi :

• The largest spoken Indo-Aryan language.
• It is the official language of the Government of India.
• Various dialects of Hindi are Khariboli, Brajbhasha, Bundeli, Awadhi, Marwari, Maithili and Bhojpuri.
• In 6 States and UTs, Hindi is the official language.

Kannada :

• It belongs to the Dravidian family & is the official langauge of Karnataka.

Kashmiri :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language.
• It is often mistaken as the official language of Jammu and Kashmir.

Konkani :

• It is the official language of Goa and is spoken by thousands of Konkanis in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
• It was added in 1992 by 71st Amendment.

Malayalam :

• Belong to the Dravidian family and is the official language of Kerala.

Manipuri :

• It is the official language of Manipur.
• It was added in 1992 by 71st Amendment.

Marathi :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language and is the official language of Maharashtra.

Nepali :

• It is spoken in parts of UP, Bihar, W. Bengal, Assam, etc.
• It was added in 1992 by 71st Amendment.

Oriya :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language and is the official language of Orissa.

Punjabi :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language and is the official language of Punjab.

Sanskrit :

• It is one of the earliest languages of the world.
• Early Sanksrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit and covers the period between 2000 and 500 BC.

Sindhi :

• It is an Indo-Aryan language.
• It was added in 1967 by 21st Amendment.

Tamil :

• It is the oldest of the Dravidian languages and is the official language of Tamil Nadu.

Telegu :

• It is numerically the biggest of the Dravidian languages and is the official language of Andhra Pradesh.

Urdu :

• It is die offiical langauge of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Modern Urdu developed due to the efforts of Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898).

Dogri :

• It is generally spoken in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu.
• It is a combination of ancient Sanskrit and Pahari Dogri languages.
• It has been added by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.

Maithili :

• It is chiefly spoken in the Maithilianchal region of Bihar.
• It is the second State language of Bihar.
• It has been added by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.

Santhali :

• It is chiefly spoken in the area of Chhotanagpur Plateau in Jharkhand and Bihar.
• It has been added by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.

Bodo :

• It is chiefly spoken in Assam and its adjoining North-East States.
• It has been added by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003.

Comparative Strengths of Scheduled Languages (Census 2001) :