India, a land of vibrant cultures and ancient history, is also a treasure trove of linguistic diversity. The question “What Language Is Spoken In India?” is far more complex than it initially seems. As a nation, India boasts an astonishing array of languages, reflecting its rich heritage and varied regional identities. Understanding the languages of India provides a fascinating insight into the country’s multifaceted society.
India is home to hundreds of languages. While Hindi and English serve as the official languages of the Union, there are also 22 languages officially recognized at the state and regional levels, enshrined in the Indian Constitution. These officially recognized languages range from Hindi, spoken by a massive 528 million native speakers, to Sanskrit, with a more modest 24,821 speakers (according to the 2011 Census of India). Ethnologue counts a staggering 447 living languages in India, while the 2011 census identifies 270 distinct mother tongues each with over 10,000 speakers. This linguistic landscape makes India one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world.
The 22 Official Languages of India: A Detailed Overview
Technically termed ‘scheduled languages’, India’s 22 official languages hold regional recognition and constitutional status. It’s important to note that while Hindi is among these 22 languages, English, despite its widespread use in Indian parliament, legal proceedings, and business, is not officially listed.
Let’s delve into each of these 22 languages to understand their significance and distribution across India:
Assamese
Alt: Assamese people celebrate Bihu festival in Assam, India, showcasing cultural traditions.
Assamese, an eastern Indo-European language, is the official language of Assam. With over 15 million native speakers, it acts as a lingua franca across the region. Tracing its roots back to at least the 7th century CE, Assamese has evolved into four main dialect groups: Eastern, Central, Kamrupi, and Goalpariya. Standard Assamese is based on the Eastern dialect.
Bengali
Alt: Example of Bengali script, a major language script in India and Bangladesh, used in writing.
Bengali (or Bangla) stands as one of India’s most prevalent languages, second only to Hindi with 97 million native speakers. Its broad usage underscores the demand for Bengali translation services for both business and personal communication needs. While primarily spoken in Bangladesh (by 98% of the population), Bengali is also prominent in Indian states such as West Bengal, Tripura, and the Barak Valley region of Assam. Significant Bengali-speaking communities also exist in Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Uttarakhand.
Bodo
Bodo, also known as Boro, belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is mainly spoken in Northeast India, Nepal, and Bengal, particularly in Assam and the Bodoland autonomous region. Around 1.4 million people speak Bodo. Since 1963, it has been written using the Devanagari script, having previously used Latin and Assamese scripts. Some believe Bodo may have originally used the ancient Deodhai script, now lost.
Dogri
Dogri, spoken by nearly 2.6 million native speakers, is concentrated in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as parts of northern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. It exists in several regional variations. Once considered a dialect of Punjabi, Dogri has gained recognition as an independent language and was officially added to the Indian constitution in 2001.
Gujarati
Alt: Gujarati couple dressed in traditional attire during a cultural festival, representing Gujarati culture.
Gujarati, an Indo-European language, is the language of the Indian state of Gujarat, with approximately 55 million native speakers. It holds official language status in Gujarat, as well as in the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Gujarati ranks as the sixth most spoken primary language in India, with about 4.5% of the population considering it their mother tongue.
Hindi
Alt: Large crowd of people in Delhi, India, illustrating the vast Hindi-speaking population in the region.
Hindi is not only a major language in India but also the fourth most spoken native language globally. Hindi translation and localization services are essential for businesses and individuals engaging with India. Nine Indian states recognize Hindi as an official language. It dominates the ‘Hindi belt’ across northern, central, eastern, and western India and serves as a lingua franca in many other parts of the country, with numerous dialects and pidgin forms present. Standard Hindi shares mutual intelligibility with standard Urdu, further enhancing its role as a common language across India.
Kannada
Alt: Example of Kannada script carved in stone in India, showcasing ancient writing system and language heritage.
Kannada, spoken by around 44 million native speakers known as Kannadigas, is recognized as one of India’s classical languages. It boasts a continuous literary history spanning over a thousand years. A Dravidian language, Kannada is primarily spoken in Karnataka in Southwestern India, where it is the official state language. It also has a presence in parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, and Goa.
Kashmiri
Kashmiri is spoken by approximately 6.7 million people, mainly in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is an official regional language. In the Kashmir Valley, Kashmiri is a compulsory subject in schools up to the secondary level since 2008. Kashmiri’s verb-second word order is notable for English speakers. It employs three writing systems: Sharada, Devanagari, and Perso-Arabic scripts. Informally, particularly online, Kashmiri speakers sometimes use the Roman script.
Konkani
Konkani is spoken along India’s western coast by around 2.2 million native speakers. It is the official language of Goa and a minority language in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Beyond standard Konkani, several dialects exist, some with limited mutual intelligibility.
Maithili
Maithili, an Indo-Aryan language, has about 13.5 million speakers in India, primarily in Bihar and Jharkhand. It is also the second most spoken language in Nepal.
Malayalam
Alt: Kathakali dancers in Kerala, India, performing traditional dance, symbolizing Malayalam cultural expression.
Malayalam is widely spoken in Kerala, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry, with approximately 34.8 million speakers, representing about 2.8% of the Indian population. Significant Malayalam-speaking communities are also found in Gulf countries due to Malayali expatriates. The origin of Malayalam is debated, with theories suggesting it branched from Middle Tamil or developed from Proto-Dravidian and Proto-Tamil-Malayalam.
Manipuri
Manipuri, also known as Meitei, is a tonal Sino-Tibetan language mainly spoken in Northeastern India, in Assam and Tripura. It has over 1.7 million native speakers and has been constitutionally recognized since 1992. UNESCO classifies Manipuri as a vulnerable language.
Marathi
Alt: Example of Marathi script with religious text in India, illustrating language’s use in religious contexts.
Marathi, an official language of Maharashtra and Goa in Western India, is spoken by about 83 million native speakers, making it the third most widely spoken language in India. Marathi has a long history in India, boasting some of the oldest literary works among modern Indian languages.
Nepali
Nepali, with around 2.9 million speakers in India, is not a major Indian language numerically. However, it has a significant presence in Sikkim, the Darjeeling Sadar subdivision, and the Kalimpong district of West Bengal.
Odia
Odia, another of India’s classical languages with a rich literary heritage, is primarily spoken in Odisha. This Indo-Aryan language has approximately 37.5 million native speakers, including 82% of Odisha’s population, and is also spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh.
Punjabi
Alt: The Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, a culturally and religiously significant site for Punjabi speakers.
Punjabi is spoken not only in India but also in neighboring countries. With over 33 million native speakers in India, it is the 11th most spoken language and the most widely spoken language in Pakistan. Spoken in the Punjab region of northwest India and eastern Pakistan, Punjabi is an Indo-European language notable for its use of lexical tone.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit, with just over 24,000 native speakers, is the least spoken of India’s scheduled languages. Despite this, Sanskrit holds immense importance as the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, with a history spanning 3,500 years. As the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit remains a living language and one of the oldest documented Indo-European languages. It has profoundly influenced many modern Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, and Gujarati.
Santhali
Santhali (or Santali) had a primarily oral tradition until Pandit Raghunath Murmu developed the Ol Chiki alphabet in 1925. Ol Chiki is now widely used to write Santhali in India. Around 7.3 million native speakers of Santhali reside in India, mainly across Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura, and West Bengal.
Sindhi
Sindhi is spoken by over 2.7 million people in India. This Indo-Aryan language is used across the northern Indian Subcontinent. Interestingly, while Sindhi is a scheduled language, it is not an official language in any Indian state. However, it is a recognized medium of instruction in Indian education and an optional third language in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
Tamil
Alt: Scenic landscape of Tamil Nadu in India, the heartland of Tamil language and culture.
Tamil, a major language in India, has over 69 million native speakers. A Dravidian language, it is official in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and a minority language in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Tamil is one of the world’s oldest surviving classical languages, boasting a literary history extending back over two millennia.
Telugu
Telugu is spoken by 81 million people in India as their mother tongue, primarily in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is the fourth most natively spoken language in India and one of the few primary Indian languages official in more than one state. Telugu is also recognized as a classical language of India.
Urdu
Urdu, also known as Lashkari, is a Persianized standard form of Hindustani. It has 50.7 million native speakers in India and holds official status in Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Delhi.
Beyond the 22: India’s Vast Linguistic Tapestry
The question of “what languages are spoken in India” extends far beyond the 22 scheduled languages. The 2011 Census of India identified 270 mother tongues with over 10,000 speakers each, including 123 categorized under the Scheduled Languages and 147 under Non-Scheduled languages.
These non-scheduled languages range from those with smaller speaker populations, like Gangte (around 16,000 speakers), to significant languages like Bhili (over 10 million speakers). Looking at the percentage of the population speaking each language provides further insight into India’s linguistic landscape. Hindi is spoken natively by 43.63% of Indians. Other languages with substantial speaker numbers include Bengali (8.03%), Marathi (6.86%), Telugu (6.70%), Tamil (5.70%), Gujarati (4.58%), and Urdu (4.19%). In total, India has 60 languages with over a million speakers each, illustrating its extraordinary linguistic richness.
Regional Language Distribution in India
96.71% of India’s population natively speaks one of the 22 scheduled languages. Language usage varies significantly across India’s regions:
North India
Alt: People in Rajasthan, India, showcasing the cultural diversity and languages of North India.
In North India, Hindi, Punjabi, and Kashmiri are the most prevalent languages. Translation and localization services are crucial for effectively communicating with the diverse markets within these regions.
Northeast India
Northeast India is a hub of linguistic diversity, with languages like Nepali, Assamese, Manipuri, Bengali, Nissi, Khasi, Mizo, and Ao spoken across the region.
South India
South India is characterized by Dravidian languages, with Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam being the most commonly heard.
Western India
Along India’s western coast, languages such as Konkani, Gujarati, Marathi, and Bhili are widely spoken.
India’s Linguistic Heritage: A Final Thought
India’s linguistic diversity is a defining characteristic, offering a captivating field of study for anyone interested in languages and cultures. Asking “What are the 22 official languages of India?” is merely the starting point in understanding the vast and intricate linguistic tapestry of this incredible nation.
