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TheEighth Schedule to theConstitution of India lists thelanguages officially recognized by theGovernment of India. As of 2024[update], 22 languages have been classified under the schedule.
As per theConstitution of India, the provisions belonging to the eight schedule are defined in articles 344(1) and 351. Article 344(1) defined a set of 14 regional languages which were represented in theOfficial Languages Commission and Article 351 deals with the promotion of usage ofHindi byGovernment of India, which was declared as an official language.English was declared as an additional official language to be used for a period not exceeding 15 years. The commission was to suggest steps to be taken to progressively promote the use of Hindi as the official language of the country.[1]
The Official Languages Act, 1963 which came into effect on 26 January 1965, made provisions for the continuation of English as an official language alongside Hindi in official communications after the expiration of the fifteen year period.[2][3]
On 18 January 1968, the Official Language Resolution was passed by theParliament of India which further mandated the development and promotion of all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule. As per the resolution, the Government of India was obligated to take measures for the development of the languages defined in the eighth schedule.[4][5]
The original Eighth Schedule in 1950 included 14 languages:
Source:[6]
The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution defined 14 languages in 1950:[7]Assamese,Bengali,Gujarati,Hindi,Kannada,Kashmiri,Malayalam,Marathi,Oriya,Punjabi,Sanskrit,Tamil,Telugu andUrdu.[8]In 1967, the21st amendment to the constitution addedSindhi to the Eighth Schedule.The71st Amendment, enacted in 1992, added three more languages:Konkani,Manipuri andNepali.In 2003, the92nd Amendment addedBodo,Dogri,Santali andMaithili, raising the total number of languages to 22.[8]In 2011, the spelling Oriya was changed to Odia by 96th amendment.[9]
As of 2025[update], the following languages are recognized under the eighth schedule of the Constitution of India:
In 2003, a committee was established byGovernment of India, to study the possible inclusion of more languages to the schedule. As per theMinistry of Home Affairs, there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. These are:[1]