Languages in India

Myriad Languages

India consists of 28 states and seven union territories.  Each region has its own community language, commonly referred to as their mother tongue, which the locals use to communicate amongst themselves and to conduct both trade and political assemblies.  There are as many as 1652 distinct languages here.  Approximately 24 of these are spoken by a million or more people in India.  Each is a separate language in its own right, rather than a dialect, which leads back to two major sources: the Indo-European family (mostly dominant in its Indo-Aryan branch but also includes Persian, Portuguese, French, and English) and the Dravidian family.  Twenty-two regional languages are currently officially recognized by the Constitution of India.  These are Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Meitei, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.  Sanskrit is also recognized as a Classical Language.   

The Official Language of India

While there is no national language for political processes, Hindi, in the Devanagari script, has been declared the official language of the Union in the Indian Constitution.  English is still recognized as the co-official language of the Indian Union and is used extensively in Parliament despite varied attempts to completely eliminate it.  However, it is most often used in conjunction with Hindi, and states are being encouraged to adopt measures to decrease its use over time.   

Breaking the Language Barrier

With Hindi as the official language, most Indians who have learned both Hindi and their own community language are able to communicate with those from other communities and states too.  Depending on the individual’s level of literacy, this prevents a veritable Tower of Babel from dividing the nation.  Visitors are advised to always carry both a Hindi and a regional phrasebook according to the region that they plan on visiting.