According to theCensus of India of 2001, India has 122major languages and 1599other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the 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.[19] Threecontact languages have played an important role in thehistory of India in chronological order:Sanskrit,[20]Persian[21] and English.[22]Persian was thecourt language during theIndo-Muslim period in India and reigned as anadministrative language for several centuries until the era ofBritish colonisation.[23] English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government.[citation needed]
Hindi, which has the largest number of first-language speakers in India today,[24] serves as thelingua franca across much ofnorthern andcentral India. However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed inSouth India, most notably in the states ofTamil Nadu andKarnataka.[25][26] Some inMaharashtra,West Bengal,Assam,Punjab,Kerala and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about imposition of Hindi.[27]Bengali is the second most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers ineastern andnortheastern regions.Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in the southwest,[28] followed closely by Telugu, which is most commonly spoken insoutheastern areas.[29]
TheSouthern Indian languages are from theDravidian family. The Dravidian languages are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[32]Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE.[33] The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada).[34]
TheNorthern Indian languages from theIndo-Aryan branch of theIndo-European family evolved from OldIndo-Aryan by way of theMiddle Indo-AryanPrakrit languages andApabhraṃśa of theMiddle 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.[35]
In theNortheast India, among theSino-Tibetan languages,Meitei language (officially known asManipuri language) was the court language of theManipur Kingdom (Meitei:Meeteileipak). It was honoured before and during thedarbar sessions before Manipur was merged into the Dominion of the Indian Republic. Its history of existence spans from 1500 to 2000 years according to most eminent scholars includingPadma Vibhushan awardeeSuniti Kumar Chatterji.[36][37] Even according to the "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947" of the once independent Manipur, Manipuri and English were made the court languages of the kingdom (before merging into Indian Republic).[38][39]
Persian, orFarsi, wasbrought into India by theGhaznavids and otherTurko-Afghan dynasties as the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the laterMughal dynasty (ofTurco-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 withSanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari.[21][40]
Each of the northern Indian languages had different influences. For example,Hindustani was strongly influenced bySanskrit,Arabic andPersian, leading to the emergence ofModern Standard Hindi andModern Standard Urdu asregisters 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.[41][42]
The first official survey of language diversity in the Indian subcontinent was carried out bySir George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled theLinguistic Survey of India, it reported a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects.[43] However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in distinguishing between "dialect" and "language",[43] 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.[44]
Languages of India by language families (Ethnologue)[45]
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 organisationSIL International, lists 435 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 424 of which are living, while 11 are extinct. The 424 living languages are further subclassified inEthnologue as follows:[45][46]
Institutional – 45
Stable – 248
Endangered – 131
Extinct – 11
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.[47]
TheCensus of India records and publishes data with respect to the number of speakers for languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing betweenlanguage andmother 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.
Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such asEast Punjab,Himachal Pradesh,Delhi,PEPSU, andBilaspur.[49]
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.[50] 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.[50] 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 unspecificdemonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian".[50]
The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues.[51] 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).[51][52]
According to the census of 2001, there are 1,635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages.[19] 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.[53] There are a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers inCoorg (Kodagu).[54]
According to the most recent census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit, and rationalisation on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliations, the census recognises 1,369 rationalised mother tongues and 1,474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue category.[55] Among, the 1,369 rationalised 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 theEighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and the other 99 are termed as "Total of other languages" which is one short as of the other languages recognised in 2001 census.[56]
A danger sign in India containing eight languages, all using different scripts.A pentalingual highway sign in Kochi written in Malayalam, English, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.
Ethnolinguistically, the languages of South Asia, echoing the complex history and geography of the region, form a complex patchwork oflanguage families, language phyla andisolates.[10] Languages spoken inIndia belong to severallanguage families, the major ones being theIndo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and theDravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. The most important language families in terms of speakers are:[59][5][6][10][60]
Present-day geographical distribution of the major Indo-Aryan language groups.Romani,Domari,Kholosi,Luwati, andLomavren are outside the scope of the map.
Approximate distribution of the Austroasiatic languages in India
Families with smaller numbers of speakers areAustroasiatic and numerous smallSino-Tibetan languages, with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of the population.[66]
The Austroasiatic language family (austro meaning South) is theautochthonous language in Southeast Asia, arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of mainland India are theKhasi andMunda languages, includingBhumij andSantali. Thelanguages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and Santali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered.[10]: 456–457
Tibeto-Burman language family
TheTibeto-Burman language family is well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree".[10]: 283–5
The only language found in the Indian mainland that is considered alanguage isolate isNihali.[10]: 337 The status of Nihali is ambiguous, having been considered as a distinct Austroasiatic language, as a dialect ofKorku and also as being a "thieves' argot" rather than a legitimate language.[74][75]
In 1946, the issue of national language was a bitterly contested subject in the proceedings of theConstituent Assembly of India, specifically what should be the language in which the Constitution of India is written and the language spoken during the proceedings of Parliament and thus deserving of the epithet "national".TheConstitution of India does not give any language the status ofnational language.[15][16]
Members belonging to the northern parts of India insisted that the Constitution be drafted in Hindi with the unofficial translation in English. This was not agreed to by the drafting committee on the grounds that English was much better to craft the nuanced prose on constitutional subjects. The efforts to make Hindi the pre-eminent language were bitterly resisted by the members from those parts of India where Hindi was not spoken natively.
Eventually, a compromise was reached not to include any mention of a national language. Instead,Hindi inDevanagari script was declared to be theofficial language of the union, but for "fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, the English Language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement."[84]
Article 343 (1) of theConstitution of India states "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script."[85]: 212 [86] Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use ofEnglish for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965.[85]: 212 [86]
As the date for changeover approached, however, there was much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially inKerala,Gujarat,Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu,Punjab,West Bengal,Karnataka,Puducherry andAndhra Pradesh. Accordingly,Jawaharlal Nehru ensured the enactment of theOfficial Languages Act, 1963,[87][88] which provided that English "may" still be used with Hindi for official purposes, even after 1965.[84] The wording of the text proved unfortunate in that while Nehru understood that "may" meant shall, politicians championing the cause of Hindi thought it implied exactly the opposite.[84]
In the event, as 1965 approached, India's new Prime MinisterLal Bahadur Shastri prepared to make Hindi paramount with effect from 26 January 1965. This led to widespread agitation, riots, self-immolations, and suicides in Tamil Nadu. The split of Congress politicians from the South from their party stance, the resignation of two Union ministers from the South, and the increasing threat to the country's unity forced Shastri to concede.[84][26]
As a result, the proposal was dropped,[89][90] and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until aresolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of the Indian Parliament.[87]
The Hindi-belt, including Hindi-related languages such as Rajasthani and Bhojpuri
In the2001 census, 422 million (422,048,642) people in India reported Hindi to be their native language.[91] This figure not only included Hindi speakers ofHindustani, but also people who identify asnative speakers of related languages who consider their speech to be a dialect of Hindi, theHindi belt. Hindi (or Hindustani) is the native language of most people living inDelhi andWestern Uttar Pradesh.[92]
"Modern Standard Hindi", astandardised language is one of theofficial languages of theUnion of India. In addition, it is one of only two languages used for business in Parliament. However, theRajya Sabha now allows all 22 official languages on the Eighth Schedule to be spoken.[93]
By virtue of its being alingua franca, Hindi has also developed regional dialects such asBambaiya Hindi inMumbai. In addition, a trade language,Andaman Creole Hindi has also developed in theAndaman Islands.[94] In addition, by use in popular culture such as songs and films, Hindi also serves as alingua franca across North-Central India.[citation needed]
Hindi is widely taught both as a primary language and language of instruction and as a second tongue in many states.
British colonialism in India resulted in English becoming a language for governance, business, and education. English, along with Hindi, is one of the two languages permitted in the Constitution of India for business in Parliament. Despite the fact that Hindi has official Government patronage and serves as alingua franca over large parts of India, there was considerable opposition to the use of Hindi in the southern states of India, and English has emerged as ade factolingua franca over much of India.[84][26] JournalistManu Joseph, in a 2011 article inThe New York Times, wrote that due to the prominence and usage of the language and the desire for English-language education, "English is the de facto national language of India. It is a bitter truth."[95] English language proficiency is highest among urban residents, wealthier Indians, Indians with higher levels of educational attainment, Christians, men and younger Indians.[96] In 2017, more than 58 per cent of rural teens could read basic English, and 53 per cent of fourteen year-olds & sixty per cent of 18-year-olds could read English sentences.[97]
Main languages of India and their relative size according to how many speakers each has[98]
Until theTwenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. TheEighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion ofSindhi,Konkani,Meitei andNepali, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, as of 1 December 2007, lists 22 languages,[85]: 330 which are given in the table below together with the regions where they are used.[91]
The individualstates, the borders of most of which are or were drawn on socio-linguistic lines, can legislate their own official languages, depending on their linguistic demographics. The official languages chosen reflect the predominant as well as politically significant languages spoken in that state. Certain states having a linguistically defined territory may have only the predominant language in that state as its official language, examples beingKarnataka andGujarat, which haveKannada andGujarati as their sole official language respectively.Telangana, with a sizeable Urdu-speaking Muslim population, andAndhra Pradesh[99] has two languages,Telugu andUrdu, as its official languages.
Some states buck the trend by using minority languages as official languages.Jammu and Kashmir used to haveUrdu, which is spoken by fewer than 1% of the population, as the sole official language until 2020.Meghalaya uses English spoken by 0.01% of the population. This phenomenon has turned majority languages into "minority languages" in a functional sense.[100]
In addition to official languages, a few states also designate official scripts.
In addition to states and union territories, India has autonomous administrative regions which may be permitted to select their own official language – a case in point being theBodoland Territorial Council in Assam which has declared theBodo language as official for the region, in addition to Assamese and English already in use.[152] andBengali in theBarak Valley,[153] as its official languages.
At a tourist site inBengaluru – Top to bottom, the languages are Hindi,Kannada,Tamil,Telugu, andMalayalam. English and many other European languages are also provided here.
InBritish India, English was the sole language used foradministrative purposes as well as forhigher education purposes. When India became independent in 1947, the Indianlegislators had the challenge of choosing a language for official communication as well as for communication between different linguistic regions across India. The choices available were:
Making"Hindi", which a plurality of the country's population (41%)[91] identified as their native language, the sole official language.
Declaring both Hindi and English to be official languages nationwide and giving each state the freedom to choose its own statewide official language(s).
TheIndian constitution, in 1950, declaredHindi inDevanagari script to be theofficial language of the union.[85] Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use ofEnglish for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965.[85] The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially inSouth India whose native tongues are not related to Hindi. As a result,Parliament enacted theOfficial Languages Act in 1963,[154][155][156][157][158][159] which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965.
Like most Indian languages, Bengali has a number of dialects. It exhibitsdiglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[162] Bengali language has developed a rich cultural base spanning art, music, literature, and religion. Bengali has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 7th to 12th century ('Charyapada' Buddhist songs).[163][164] There have been many movements in defence of this language and in 1999UNESCO declared 21 Feb as theInternational Mother Language Day in commemoration of theBengali language movement in 1952.[165]
Asamiya or Assamese language is most spoken in the state ofAssam.[166] It is anEastern Indo-Aryan language with more than 23 million total speakers including more than 15 million native speakers and more than 7 millionL2 speakers per the 2011 Census of India.[167] Along with otherEastern Indo-Aryan languages, Assamese evolved at least before the 7th century CE[168] from the middle Indo-AryanMagadhi Prakrit. Assamese is unusual among Eastern Indo-Aryan languages for the presence of the/x/ (which, phonetically, varies between velar ([x]) and a uvular ([χ]) pronunciations). The first characteristics of this language are seen in theCharyapadas composed in between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The first examples emerged in writings of court poets in the fourteenth century, the finest example of which is Madhav Kandali'sSaptakanda Ramayana composed during 14th century CE, which was the first translation of theRamayana into anIndo-Aryan language.
Marathi is anIndo-Aryan language. It is the official language and co-official language inMaharashtra andGoa states of Western India respectively, and is one of the official languages of India. There were 83 million speakers of the language in 2011.[169] Marathi has the third-largest number of native speakers in India and ranks 10th in thelist of most spoken languages in the world. Marathi has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages; Oldest stone inscriptions from 8th century & literature dating from about 1100 AD (Mukundraj'sVivek Sindhu dates to the 12th century). The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi (Pramaan Bhasha) and the Varhadi dialect. There are other related languages such asAhirani, Dangi,Vadvali,Samavedi.Malvani Konkani has been heavily influenced by Marathi varieties. Marathi is one of several languages that descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. The further change led to the Apabhraṃśa languages likeOld Marathi.
Marathi Language Day (मराठी दिन/मराठी दिवस (transl. Marathi Dina/Marathi Diwasa) is celebrated on 27 February every year across the Indian states of Maharashtra and Goa. This day is regulated by the State Government. It is celebrated on the birthday of eminent Marathi Poet Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, popularly known asKusumagraj .
Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories ofDadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. InGoa,Konkani is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for all official purposes.[170]
Over a period of many centuries the Marathi language and people came into contact with many other languages and dialects. The primary influence ofPrakrit,Maharashtri,Apabhraṃśa andSanskrit is understandable. Marathi has also been influenced by theAustroasiatic,Dravidian and foreign languages such asPersian andArabic. Marathi contains loanwords from Persian, Arabic,English and a little fromFrench andPortuguese.
Meitei language is currently proposed to be included in the elite category of "Classical Languages" of India.[174][175][176] Besides, it is also currently proposed to be an associate official language ofGovernment of Assam. According toLeishemba Sanajaoba, the present titular king ofManipur and aRajya Sabha member of Manipur state, by recognising Meitei as anassociate official language of Assam, the identity, history, culture and tradition of Manipuris residing in Assam could be protected.[177][178][179]
Telugu is themost widely spokenDravidian language in India and around the world. Telugu is an official language inAndhra Pradesh,Telangana andYanam, making it one of the few languages (along with Hindi, Bengali, and Urdu) with official status in more than one state. It is also spoken by a significant number of people in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and by the Sri Lankan Gypsy people. It is one of six languages withclassical status in India. Telugu ranks fourth by the number of native speakers in India (81 million in the 2011 Census),[169] fifteenth in theEthnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide and is the most widely spoken Dravidian language.
After independence,Modern Standard Urdu, the Persianised register of Hindustani became thenational language of Pakistan. During British colonial times, knowledge of Hindustani or Urdu was a must for officials. Hindustani was made the second language of British Indian Empire after English and considered as the language of administration.[citation needed] The British introduced the use of Roman script for Hindustani as well as other languages. Urdu had 70 million speakers in India (per the Census of 2001), and, along with Hindi, is one of the 22 officially recognised regional languages of India and also an official language in the Indian states ofAndhra Pradesh[99], Jammu and Kashmir,Delhi,Uttar Pradesh,Bihar andTelangana that have significant Muslim populations.
Kannada is a Dravidian language which branched off fromKannada-Tamil sub group around 500 B.C.E according to the Dravidian scholar Zvelebil.[193] It is the official language ofKarnataka. According to the Dravidian scholars Steever and Krishnamurthy, the study of Kannada language is usually divided into three linguistic phases: Old (450–1200 CE), Middle (1200–1700 CE) and Modern (1700–present).[194][195] The earliest written records are from the 5th century,[196] and the earliest available literature in rich manuscript (Kavirajamarga) is fromc. 850.[197][198] Kannada language has the second oldest written tradition of all languages of India.[199][200] Current estimates of the total number ofepigraph present in Karnataka range from 25,000 by the scholarSheldon Pollock to over 30,000 by theSahitya Akademi,[201] making Karnataka state "one of the most densely inscribed pieces of real estate in the world".[202] According to Garg and Shipely, more than a thousand notable writers have contributed to the wealth of the language.[203][204]
Odia (formerly spelledOriya)[211] is one of the modern language officially recognised as a classical language from theIndo-Aryan group. Odia is primarily spoken and has official language status in the Indian state ofOdisha and has over 40 million speakers. It was declared as a classical language of India in 2014. Native speakers comprise 91.85% of the population in Odisha.[212][213] Odia originated from Odra Prakrit which developed fromMagadhi Prakrit, a language spoken in eastern India over 2,500 years ago. The history of Odia language can be divided to Old Odia (3rd century BC −1200 century AD),[214] Early Middle Odia (1200–1400), Middle Odia (1400–1700), Late Middle Odia (1700–1870) and Modern Odia (1870 until present day). TheNational Manuscripts Mission of India have found around 213,000 unearthed and preserved manuscripts written in Odia.[215]
Punjabi, written in theGurmukhi script in India, is one of the prominent languages of India with about 32 million speakers. In Pakistan it is spoken by over 80 million people and is written in theShahmukhi alphabet. It is mainly spoken inPunjab but also in neighbouring areas. It is an official language ofDelhi andPunjab.
Maithili is anIndo-Aryan language native to India and Nepal. In India, it is widely spoken in theBihar andJharkhand states.[224][225] Native speakers are also found in other states and union territories of India, most notably inUttar Pradesh and theNational Capital Territory of Delhi.[226] In the2011 census of India, It was reported by 13,583,464 people as their mother tongue comprising about 1.12% of the total population of India.[227]InNepal, it is spoken in the easternTerai, and is the second most prevalent language of Nepal.[228]Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili. Less commonly, it was also written in the local variant ofKaithi.[229] Today it is written in theDevanagari script.[230]
In 2003, Maithili was included in theEighth Schedule of theIndian Constitution as a recognised regional language of India, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.[231]
In 2004, theGovernment of India declared that languages that met certain requirements could be accorded the status of a "Classical Language" of India.[232]
Over the next few years, several languages were granted the Classical status, and demands have been made for other languages, includingMaithili[241] andMeitei (officially calledManipuri).[242][243][244]
Other regional languages and dialects
The 2001 census identified the following native languages having more than one million speakers. Most of them are dialects/variants grouped under Hindi.[91]
India has several languages in use; choosing any single language as an official language presents problems to all those whose "mother tongue" is different. However, all the boards of education across India recognise the need for training people to one common language.[245] There are complaints that inNorth India, non-Hindi speakers have language trouble. Similarly, there are complaints that North Indians have to undergo difficulties on account of language when travelling toSouth India. It is common to hear of incidents that result due to friction between those who strongly believe in the chosenofficial language, and those who follow the thought that the chosen language(s) do not take into account everyone's preferences.[246] Local official language commissions have been established and various steps are being taken in a direction to reduce tensions and friction.[citation needed]
Earliest known manuscripts are often subjected to debates and disputes, due to the conflicting opinions and assumptions of different scholars, claiming high antiquity of the languages. So, inscriptions are studied more in depth for understanding the chronology of the oldest known languages of the Indian subcontinent.
Date
Language
Earliest known inscriptions
Images
Notes
15th century BCE
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit loanwords and names of Vedic gods found in inscriptions/texts of theMitanni Empire
Cuneiform tablet containing a letter from Tushratta of Mitanni to Amenhotep III (of 13 letters of King Tushratta).British Museum
Yumbanlolcopper plate inscriptions about literature of sexuality, the relationships between husbands and wives, and instructions on how to run a household.[253][254]
There are conflicts overlinguistic rights in India. The first major linguistic conflict, known as theAnti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu, took place in Tamil Nadu against the implementation of Hindi as the official language of India. Political analysts consider this as a major factor in bringingDMK to power and leading to the ousting and nearly total elimination of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu.[268] Strong cultural pride based on language is also found in other Indian states such as Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra. To express disapproval of theimposition of Hindi on its states' people as a result of the central government, the government of Maharashtra made the state language Marathi mandatory in educational institutions ofCBSE andICSE through Class/Grade 10.[269]
In the history of India, various linguistic movements were and are undertaken by different literary, political and social associations as well as organisations, advocating for the changes and the developments of several languages, dialects and vernaculars in diverse critical, discriminative and unfavorable circumstances and situations.
The Bhojpuri language movement, a linguistic movement that has been actively campaigning for greater recognition of theBhojpuri language since 1947.[270][271]
There have been several protests and demands to include the Bhojpuri language in theEighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution for a long time. In 1971, CPI MPBhogendra Jha introduced a bill on this issue in the Lok Sabha, but it was rejected.
In 2009 and 2016,Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister ofUttar Pradesh and former MP fromGorakhpur, raised the issue of Bhojpuri's recognition in the Lok Sabha. He emphasised that Bhojpuri, spoken in parts of India and 27 countries, is one of the world's major languages.[272]
Since 2020, theGovernment of Assam is giving annual financial support of₹500,000 (equivalent to₹590,000 or US$7,000 in 2023) to theAssam Manipuri Sahitya Parishad. Besides, the Assam government financed₹6 crore (equivalent to₹7.1 crore or US$840,000 in 2023) for the creation of a corpus for the development of theMeitei language (officially calledManipuri language).[279]
TheCentral Government of India allocated ₹6438.4 million in the last three years for the development and the promotion ofSanskrit, ₹2311.5 million in 2019–20, around ₹2143.8 million in 2018–19, and ₹1983.1 million in 2017–18.[285][286]
TheCentral Government of India gave an allocation of Rs 105.9 million in 2017–18, Rs 46.5 million in 2018–19 and Rs 77 million in 2019–20 to the "Central Institute of Classical Tamil" for the development and the promotion ofTamil language.[285][287]
Seal, signature and handwriting of Maratha Senadhurandar Mudhoji Bhonsle I of Chandrapur and Nagpur. This text is written inModi script which was used as an alternative script for Marathi.
^In modern and colloquial context, the term "Indic" also refers more generally to the languages of theIndian subcontinent, thus also including non-Indo-Aryan languages. See e.g.Reynolds, Mike; Verma, Mahendra (2007)."Indic languages". In Britain, David (ed.).Language in the British Isles. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. pp. 293–307.ISBN978-0-521-79488-6. Retrieved4 October 2021.
^Although linguistically Hindi and Urdu are the same language calledHindustani, the government classifies them as separate languages instead of differentstandard registers of same language.
^TheMeitei language (officially calledManipuri) versions of the press releases are presently available in Bengali script, but there is plan of changing the script intoMeitei script (Manipuri script) in due course of time.
^Reynolds, Mike; Verma, Mahendra (2007), Britain, David (ed.),"Indic languages",Language in the British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 293–307,ISBN978-0-521-79488-6, retrieved4 October 2021
^abAbidi, S.A.H.; Gargesh, Ravinder (2008)."4. Persian in South Asia". In Kachru, Braj B. (ed.).Language in South Asia. Kachru, Yamuna & Sridhar, S.N. Cambridge University Press. pp. 103–120.ISBN978-0-521-78141-1.
^Bhatia, Tej K and William C. Ritchie. (2006) Bilingualism in South Asia. In: Handbook of Bilingualism, pp. 780–807. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
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^Dasgupta, Jyotirindra (1970).Language Conflict and National Development: Group Politics and National Language Policy in India. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies. p. 47.ISBN9780520015906.
^abVijayanunni, M. (26–29 August 1998)."Planning for the 2001 Census of India based on the 1991 Census"(PDF).18th Population Census Conference. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA: Association of National Census and Statistics Directors of America, Asia, and the Pacific. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 19 November 2008. Retrieved17 December 2014.
^Anthology of articles, Indian and Soviet scholars (1975).Problems of Modern Indian Literature. theUniversity of Michigan: Statistical Pub. Society : distributor, K. P. Bagchi. p. 23.
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^Robbins Burling."On "Kamarupan""(PDF).Sealang.net. Retrieved28 December 2017.
^Forrester, Duncan B. (Spring–Summer 1966), "The Madras Anti-Hindi Agitation, 1965: Political Protest and its Effects on Language Policy in India",Pacific Affairs,39 (1/2):19–36,doi:10.2307/2755179,JSTOR2755179
^"The Assam Official Language Act, 1960".India Code. Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. 19 December 1960. Retrieved28 February 2024.
^The National Commission for Linguistic Minorities, 1950 (ibid) makes no mention of Chhattisgarhi as an additional state language, despite the 2007 notification of the State Govt, presumably because Chhattisgarhi is considered as a dialect of Hindi.
^Kurzon, Dennis (2004)."3. The Konkani-Marathi Controversy : 2000-01 version".Where East Looks West: Success in English in Goa and on the Konkan Coast. Multilingual Matters. pp. 42–58.ISBN978-1-85359-673-5. Retrieved26 December 2014. Dated, but gives a good overview of the controversy to give Marathi full "official status".
^"The Haryana Official Language Act, 1969".India Code. Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. 5 March 1969. Retrieved28 February 2024.
^"Language and Literature",Official website of Government of Madhya Pradesh, Government of Madhya Pradesh, archived fromthe original on 29 September 2007, retrieved16 July 2007
^There are three primary languages used for official purposes – Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. The official language policy of the union territory states that the Tamil language should be the primary language used for all or any of the official purposes of the union territory. In the case of Mahe and Yanam, Malayalam and Telugu, respectively, may be used instead of or in conjunction with Tamil. The English language may also be used for official purposes. (ACT 28, Gazetteer, Pondicherry Vol. 1, P. II)Multilingualism and second language acquisition and learning in Pondicherry
^"Bengali language | History, Writing System & Dialects | Britannica".www.britannica.com. 31 August 2024. Retrieved3 October 2024.The Bengali linguists Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Sukumar Sen suggested that Bengali had its origin in the 10th century ce, deriving from Magahi Prakrit (a spoken language) through Magahi Apabhramsha (its written counterpart). The Bengali scholar Muhammad Shahidullah and his followers offered a competing theory, suggesting that the language began in the 7th century CE and developed from spoken and written Gauda (also, respectively, a Prakrit and an Apabhramsha).
^Mitra, Atri (8 October 2024)."Behind Bengali's classical language tag, a Kolkata institute's 2,000-page research document".The Indian Express. Kolkata. Retrieved2 April 2025.…a Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary compiled by Li-Yen bears testimony to the fact that at least 51 Bangla words made their way into that dictionary…The Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in the 8th Century CE, included or rather was compelled to include words of a third language, i.e., Bangla.
^The Goa, Daman, and Diu Official Language Act, 1987 makes Konkani the official language, but provides that Marathi may also be used "for all or any of the official purposes". The Government also has a policy of replying in Marathi to correspondence received in Marathi. Commissioner Linguistic Minorities,[1], pp. para 11.3Archived 19 September 2009 at theWayback Machine
^Stein, Burton (November 1977), "Circulation and the Historical Geography of Tamil Country",The Journal of Asian Studies,37 (1):7–26,doi:10.2307/2053325,JSTOR2053325,S2CID144599197
^Steever, Sanford B."The Dravidian languages", First Published (1998), pp. 6–9.ISBN0-415-10023-2
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^Salomon, Richard (1998).Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 86–87.ISBN978-0-19-535666-3.
^"মণিপুরি ভাষা শিখলেই মিলবে কড়কড়ে ৫০০০ টাকা" [Manipuri Language : If you learn Manipuri language, you will get 5000 rupees, new strategy to prevent English?].Eisamay (in Bengali). Retrieved24 November 2023.
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