The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan (spoken by 72% of Indians) and the Dravidian languages (spoken by 25% of Indians).[1] Other languages spoken in India belong to the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman, and a few minor language families and isolates.[2]
The principal official language of the Republic of India is Standard Hindi, while English is the secondary official language.[3] The constitution of India states that "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script."[4] Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a national language, a position supported by a High Court ruling.[5] However, languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution are sometimes referred to, without legal standing, as the national languages of India.[6][7]
Individual mother tongues in India number several hundred;[8] the 1961 census recognized 1,652[9] (SIL Ethnologue lists 415). According to Census of India of 2001, 29 languages are spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000. Three millennia of language contact has led to significant mutual influence among the four language families in India and South Asia. Two contact languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian and English.[10]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status_in_India
The official language of the Indian Union is Hindi with English as an additional language for official work;[1] states in India can legislate their own official languages.[1] Neither the Constitution of India, nor any Indian law defines any national language.[2]
States specify their own official language(s) through legislation. The section of the Constitution of India dealing with official languages therefore includes detailed provisions[3] which deal not just with the languages used for the official purposes of the union,[4] but also with the languages that are to be used for the official purposes of each state and union territory in the country,[5] and the languages that are to be used for communication between the union and the states inter se.[6]
During the British Raj, English was used for most official purposes both at the federal level and in the various states.[7] The Indian constitution adopted in 1950, envisaged the gradual phasing in of Hindi, to replace English over a fifteen-year period, but gave Parliament the power to, by law, provide for the continued use of English even thereafter.[8] But resistance to making Hindi the sole official language has resulted in English being retained for official uses. English continues to be used today, in combination with Hindi (at the central level and in some states) and other languages (at the state level).
The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently includes the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) Rules, 1976, and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations made by the central government and the states.
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http://www.oclc.org/languagesets/educational/languages/india.htm
Languages of India
There are 15 national languages recognized by the Indian constitution and these are spoken in over 1600 dialects. The national or official languages are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English (Associate Official). An estimated 850 languages are in daily use (Todd and Hancock 1986). Other languages spoken in India include Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, Armenian, Burushaski, Western Farsi, Geman Deng, Lisu, Northern Pashto, Portuguese, Russian, Thami, Chitwania Tharu, Kathoriya Tharu, Uyghur, Walungge, Arabic and Chinese. India's official language is Hindi in the Devnagri script. However, English continues to be the official working language. For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language, and for a great number of Indians who are multilingual, it will probably be the second. The literacy rate of India is between 36% to 52%. India has a wide variety of local languages and in many cases the state boundaries have been drawn on linguistic lines. Besides Hindi and English, the other popular languages are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Some Indian languages have evolved from the Indo-European group of languages. This set is known as the Indic group of languages. The other set of languages are Dravidian and are native to South India, though a distinct influence of Sanskrit and Hindi is evident in these languages. Most of the Indian languages have their own script and are spoken in the respective states along with English. Languages of India in the Language SetsGujaratiGujarati is the state language of Gujarat, a western state of India, and is spoken by 70 percent of the state's population. More than 46 million people worldwide consider Gujarati as their first language. Apart from Gujarat, it is widely spoken in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Worldwide it is spoken in the United Kingdom, the United States, Kenya, South Africa, East Africa, Uganda, Fiji, Singapore and New Zealand.
HindiHindi is spoken mainly in the northern part of India; however, it is widely understood across all of India, except by about 40 percent of the population in a few states of southern India. It is not easy to delimit the borders of the Hindi-speaking region. Outside India, Hindi-speaking population is found in Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, South Africa, Singapore, Uganda, Nepal, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
MalayalamMalayalam is a Dravidian language used predominantly in the state of Kerala, in southern India. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and it is used by around 36 million people. Malayalam is also widely used in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mah`e, the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu districts of Karnataka. It is also used by a large population of Indian expatriates living in Arab States, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
MarathiMarathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are 90 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi is the fourth most spoken language in India and the 15th most spoken language in the world. Marathi is the oldest of the regional literatures in Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 1000 AD.
PanjabiEastern Panjabi is the state Language of Panjab, the northern state of India. 30 to 45 million people regard Eastern Panjabi as their main language. Western Panjabi is widely spoken in Pakistan. About 27 million consider this branch of Panjabi their first language. Eastern Panjabi
Western Panjabi
TeluguTelegu is one of the four classical languages of India. It is a South-Central Dravidian language mostly spoken in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is the official language. The Telugu script is derived from the Brāhmī script of the Mauryan Empire. Telugu has been subjected to prolonged, enormous influence from Sanskrit and also from the Prakrits, the spoken Indo-Aryan languages of medieval North India.
UrduUrdu is one of the official languages of Pakistan, although it is spoken by only 8% of the population. It is also the state language of the Indian provinces of Jammu and Kashmir. Urdu is the language adopted by the majority of the Muslims in India. Urdu is written in the Persio-Arabic script and contains many words from the Persian language.
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