India does not have a national language. However, Rule 1976 (As Amended, 1987) of the Constitution of India, mandates Hindi and English as the "Official Languages" required "for Official Purpose of the Union." Business in the Indian parliament is transacted in either Hindi or in English. English is allowed for official purposes such as parliamentary proceedings, judiciary, communications between the Central Government and a State Government.
States within India have the liberty and powers to select their own official language(s) through legislation. In addition to the two Official Languages, the constitution recognizes 22 regional languages, named in a specific list as "Scheduled Languages". (Hindi is a listed Scheduled Language but English is not.) India's Constitution includes provisions detailing the languages used for the official purposes of the union, the languages used for the official purposes of each state and union territory and the languages used for communication between the union and the states.
Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of the "Hindi Belt".[2] According to 2001 Census, 53.6% of the Indian population declared that they speak Hindi as either their first or second language, in which 41% of them have declared it as their native language.[3][4][5] 12% of Indians declared that they can speak English as a second language.[6]
India has a Greenberg's diversity index of 0.914—i.e. two people selected at random from the country will have different native languages in 91.4% of cases.[9]
The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total population). The languages in bold are scheduled languages (the only scheduled language with less than 1 million native speakers is Sanskrit). The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for scheduled languages.
First, second, and third languages by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)
* Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001. ** The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results.
Each of the languages of the 2001 census subsumes one or more mother tongues. Speaker numbers are available for these mother tongues and they are also included in the speaker numbers for their respective language. For example, the language Telugu (with a total of 81,127,740 speakers) includes the mother tongues of Telugu (with 80,912,459 speakers), Vadari (198,020 speakers) and "Others" (17,261 speakers).[21] The General Notes from the 2001 census define "mother tongue" as "the language spoken in childhood by the person's mother to the person. If the mother died in infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person's home in childhood will be the mother tongue."[22]
The following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers according to the 2011 census:[23]
Mother tongues with more than one million speakers
^Some languages may be over- or under-represented as the census data used is at the state-level. For example, while Urdu has 52 million speakers (2001), in no state is it a majority language.
^(PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
^In 1991, there were 90,000,000 "users" of English. (Census of India Indian Census 2006-12-23 at the Wayback Machine, Issue 10, 2003, pp. 8–10, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism) and Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages 2008-03-08 at the Wayback Machine. Siemens AG, Munich.)
^. censusindia.gov. New Delhi, India: Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 2007-11-30. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
^Paul, Lewis M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2015). "Summary by country". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Eighteenth ed.). SIL International.
^Jain, Bharti (27 June 2018). "Hindi mother tongue of 44% in India, Bangla second most-spoken". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
^Statement 4 : Scheduled Languages in descending order of speakers' strength – 2011
^ abcdGovernment of India, Ministry of Home Affairs. . Archived from the original on 2019-11-13. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
^"Indiaspeak: English is our 2nd language – Times of India".
^Comparative Speaker's Strength of Scheduled Languages -1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001, Census of India, 1991
^Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2000, Census of India, 2001
Language Maps from Central Institute of Indian Languages
Census data on Languages
C-16 Population By Mother Tongue – Town Level
C-16 Population By Mother Tongue
External links
. Discover India. Archived from the original on 1 January 2007.
Ethnologue report
[ Central Institute of Indian Languages
January 08, 2023
list, languages, number, native, speakers, india, india, home, several, hundred, languages, most, indians, speak, language, belonging, families, indo, aryan, branch, indo, european, dravidian, austroasiatic, munda, sino, tibetan, with, some, languages, himalay. India is home to several hundred languages Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo Aryan branch of Indo European c 77 the Dravidian c 20 61 the Austroasiatic Munda c 1 2 or the Sino Tibetan c 0 8 with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified The SIL Ethnologue lists 415 living languages for India States and union territories of India by the most commonly spoken L1 first language 1 a Contents 1 Overview 2 List of languages by number of native speakers 2 1 More than one million speakers 2 2 100 000 to one million speakers 3 List of mother tongues by number of speakers 4 Notes 5 See also 6 References 6 1 General references 7 External linksOverview EditIndia does not have a national language However Rule 1976 As Amended 1987 of the Constitution of India mandates Hindi and English as the Official Languages required for Official Purpose of the Union Business in the Indian parliament is transacted in either Hindi or in English English is allowed for official purposes such as parliamentary proceedings judiciary communications between the Central Government and a State Government States within India have the liberty and powers to select their own official language s through legislation In addition to the two Official Languages the constitution recognizes 22 regional languages named in a specific list as Scheduled Languages Hindi is a listed Scheduled Language but English is not India s Constitution includes provisions detailing the languages used for the official purposes of the union the languages used for the official purposes of each state and union territory and the languages used for communication between the union and the states Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the northern parts of India The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of Hindi as a broad variety of the Hindi Belt 2 According to 2001 Census 53 6 of the Indian population declared that they speak Hindi as either their first or second language in which 41 of them have declared it as their native language 3 4 5 12 of Indians declared that they can speak English as a second language 6 Thirteen languages account for more than 1 of Indian population each and between themselves for over 95 all of them are scheduled languages of the constitution Scheduled languages spoken by fewer than 1 of Indians are Santali 0 63 Kashmiri 0 54 Nepali 0 28 Sindhi 0 25 Konkani 0 24 Dogri 0 22 Meitei 0 14 Bodo 0 13 and Sanskrit In the 2001 census of India 14 135 people reported Sanskrit as their native language 7 The largest language that is not scheduled is Bhili 0 95 followed by Gondi 0 27 Khandeshi 0 21 Tulu 0 17 and Kurukh 0 10 As per 2011 census 26 of Indians are bilingual and 7 are trilingual 8 India has a Greenberg s diversity index of 0 914 i e two people selected at random from the country will have different native languages in 91 4 of cases 9 As per the 2011 Census of India languages by highest number of speakers are as follows Hindi Bengali Marathi Telugu Tamil Gujarati Urdu Kannada Odia Malayalam 10 11 List of languages by number of native speakers EditOrdered by number of speakers as first language More than one million speakers Edit The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers 0 1 of total population The languages in bold are scheduled languages the only scheduled language with less than 1 million native speakers is Sanskrit The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for scheduled languages First second and third languages by number of speakers in India 2011 Census First language speakers Second languagespeakers 12 Third languagespeakers 12 Total speakersLanguage Figure 12 of totalpopulation Figure 13 12 of totalpopulationHindi b 528 347 193 43 63 139 207 180 24 160 696 691 347 193 57 09 Bengali 97 237 669 8 03 9 037 222 1 008 088 107 237 669 8 85 Marathi 83 026 680 6 86 12 923 626 2 966 019 99 026 680 8 18 Telugu 81 127 740 6 70 11 946 414 1 001 498 94 127 740 7 77 Tamil 69 026 881 5 70 6 992 253 956 335 77 026 881 6 36 Gujarati 55 492 554 4 58 4 035 489 1 007 912 60 492 554 4 99 Urdu 50 772 631 4 19 11 055 287 1 096 428 62 772 631 5 18 Kannada 43 706 512 3 61 14 076 355 993 989 58 706 512 4 84 Odia 37 521 324 3 10 4 972 151 31 525 42 551 324 3 51 Malayalam 34 838 819 2 88 499 188 195 885 35 538 819 2 93 Punjabi 33 124 726 2 74 2 300 000 720 000 36 074 726 2 97 Assamese 15 311 351 1 26 7 488 153 740 402 23 539 906 1 94 English 259 678 0 02 83 125 221 45 993 066 129 259 678 10 67 Table Population ordered by number of native speakers Rank Language 1991 census of India 14 total 838 583 988 2001 census of India 15 total 1 028 610 328 2011 Census of India 16 17 total 1 210 854 977 18 Encarta 2007 estimate 19 Worldwide totalSpeakers Percentage Speakers Percentage Speakers Percentage Speakers1 Hindi b 329 518 087 39 29 422 048 642 41 1 528 347 193 43 63 366 million2 Bengali 69 595 738 8 30 83 369 769 8 11 97 237 669 8 03 207 million3 Marathi 62 481 681 7 45 71 936 894 6 99 83 026 680 6 86 68 0 million4 Telugu 66 017 615 7 87 74 002 856 7 19 81 127 740 6 70 69 7 million5 Tamil 53 006 368 6 32 60 793 814 5 91 69 026 881 5 70 66 0 million6 Gujarati 40 673 814 4 85 46 091 617 4 48 55 492 554 4 58 46 1 million7 Urdu 43 406 932 5 18 51 536 111 5 01 50 772 631 4 19 60 3 million8 Kannada 32 753 676 3 91 37 924 011 3 69 43 706 512 3 61 35 3 million9 Odia 28 061 313 3 35 33 017 446 3 21 37 521 324 3 10 32 3 million10 Malayalam 30 377 176 3 62 33 066 392 3 21 34 838 819 2 88 35 7 million11 Punjabi 23 378 744 2 79 29 102 477 2 83 33 124 726 2 74 57 1 million12 Assamese 13 079 696 1 56 13 168 484 1 28 15 311 351 1 26 15 4 million13 Maithili 7 766 921 0 926 12 179 122 1 18 13 583 464 1 12 24 2 million14 Bhili Bhilodi 9 582 957 0 93 10 413 637 0 86 15 Santali 5 216 325 0 622 6 469 600 0 63 7 368 192 0 61 16 Kashmiri 5 527 698 0 54 6 797 587 0 56 17 Gondi 2 713 790 0 26 2 984 453 0 25 18 Nepali 2 076 645 0 248 2 871 749 0 28 2 926 168 0 24 16 1 million19 Sindhi 2 122 848 0 253 2 535 485 0 25 2 772 264 0 23 19 7 million20 Dogri 2 282 589 0 22 2 596 767 0 21 21 Konkani 1 760 607 0 210 2 489 015 0 24 2 256 502 0 19 22 Kurukh 1 751 489 0 17 1 988 350 0 16 23 Khandeshi 2 075 258 0 21 1 860 236 0 15 24 Tulu 1 722 768 0 17 1 846 427 0 15 25 Meitei Manipuri 1 270 216 0 151 1 466 705 0 14 1 761 079 0 15 26 Bodo 1 221 881 0 146 1 350 478 0 13 1 482 929 0 12 27 Khasi 1 128 575 0 11 1 431 344 0 12 28 Ho 1 042 724 0 101 1 421 418 0 12 29 Garo 1 061 352 0 103 1 145 323 0 09 30 Mundari 889 479 0 086 1 128 228 0 09 31 Tripuri 854 023 0 083 1 011 294 0 08 Excludes figures of Paomata Mao Maram and Purul sub divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001 The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao Maram Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results 100 000 to one million speakers Edit Rank Language 2001 censusSpeakers Percentage32 Kui 916 222 0 089 33 Lushai Mizo 674 756 0 066 34 Halabi 593 443 0 058 35 Korku 574 481 0 056 36 Miri Mishing 551 224 0 054 37 Munda 469 357 0 046 38 Karbi Mikir 419 534 0 041 39 Koya 362 070 0 035 40 Ao 261 387 0 025 41 Savara 252 519 0 025 42 Konyak 248 109 0 024 43 Kharia 239 608 0 023 44 English 226 449 0 022 45 Malto 224 926 0 022 46 Nissi Dafla 211 485 0 021 47 Adi 198 462 0 019 48 Thado 190 595 0 019 49 Lotha 170 001 0 017 50 Coorgi Kodagu 166 187 0 016 51 Rabha 164 770 0 016 52 Tangkhul 142 035 0 014 53 Kisan 141 088 0 014 54 Angami 132 225 0 013 55 Phom 122 508 0 012 56 Kolami 121 855 0 012 57 Khond Kondh 20 118 597 0 012 58 Dimasa 111 961 0 011 59 Ladakhi 104 618 0 010 60 Sema 103 529 0 010 List of mother tongues by number of speakers EditEach of the languages of the 2001 census subsumes one or more mother tongues Speaker numbers are available for these mother tongues and they are also included in the speaker numbers for their respective language For example the language Telugu with a total of 81 127 740 speakers includes the mother tongues of Telugu with 80 912 459 speakers Vadari 198 020 speakers and Others 17 261 speakers 21 The General Notes from the 2001 census define mother tongue as the language spoken in childhood by the person s mother to the person If the mother died in infancy the language mainly spoken in the person s home in childhood will be the mother tongue 22 The following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers according to the 2011 census 23 Mother tongues with more than one million speakers Rank Mother tongue 2011 census Includedin languageSpeakers Percentage1 Hindi 322 200 000 26 6 2 Bengali 96 180 000 7 94 3 Marathi 82 800 000 6 84 4 Telugu 80 910 000 6 68 5 Tamil 68 890 000 5 69 6 Gujarati 55 040 000 4 55 7 Urdu 50 730 000 4 19 8 Bhojpuri 50 580 000 4 18 Hindi9 Kannada 43 510 000 3 59 10 Malayalam 34 780 000 2 87 11 Odia 34 060 000 2 81 12 Punjabi 31 140 000 2 57 13 Rajasthani 25 810 000 2 13 Hindi14 Chhattisgarhi 16 250 000 1 34 Hindi15 Assamese 14 820 000 1 22 16 Maithili 13 350 000 1 10 17 Magadhi Magahi 12 710 000 1 05 Hindi18 Haryanvi 9 807 000 0 810 Hindi19 Khortha Khotta 8 039 000 0 664 Hindi20 Marwari 7 832 000 0 647 Hindi21 Santali 6 973 000 0 576 22 Kashmiri 6 554 000 0 541 23 Bundeli Bundel khandi 5 626 000 0 465 Hindi24 Malvi 5 213 000 0 430 Hindi25 Sadan Sadri 4 346 000 0 359 Hindi26 Mewari 4 212 000 0 348 Hindi27 Awadhi 3 851 000 0 318 Hindi28 Wagdi 3 394 000 0 280 Bhili Bhilodi29 Lamani Lambadi 3 277 000 0 271 Hindi30 Pahari c 3 254 000 0 269 Hindi31 Bhili Bhilodi 3 207 000 0 265 32 Hara Harauti 2 944 000 0 243 Hindi33 Nepali 2 926 000 0 242 34 Gondi 2 857 000 0 236 35 Bagheli Baghel Khandi 2 679 000 0 221 Hindi36 Sambalpuri 2 630 000 0 217 Odia37 Dogri 2 597 000 0 214 38 Garhwali 2 482 000 0 205 Hindi39 Nimadi 2 309 000 0 191 Hindi40 Surjapuri 2 256 000 0 186 Hindi41 Konkani 2 147 000 0 177 42 Kumauni 2 081 000 0 172 Hindi43 Kurukh Oraon 1 977 000 0 163 44 Tulu 1 842 000 0 152 45 Manipuri 1 761 000 0 145 46 Surgujia 1 738 000 0 144 Hindi47 Sindhi 1 679 000 0 139 48 Bagri 1 657 000 0 137 Punjabi49 Ahirani 1 636 000 0 135 Khandeshi50 Banjari 1 581 000 0 131 Hindi51 Brajbhasha 1 556 000 0 129 Hindi52 Dhundhari 1 476 000 0 122 Hindi53 Bodo Boro 1 455 000 0 120 Bodo54 Ho 1 411 000 0 117 55 Gojri Gujjari Gujar 1 228 000 0 101 Hindi56 Mundari 1 128 000 0 093 57 Garo 1 125 000 0 093 58 Kangri 1 117 000 0 092 Hindi59 Khasi 1 038 000 0 086 60 Kachchhi 1 031 000 0 085 SindhiNotes Edit Some languages may be over or under represented as the census data used is at the state level For example while Urdu has 52 million speakers 2001 in no state is it a majority language a b Includes Western Hindi apart from Urdu Eastern Hindi Bihari languages except for Maithili the Rajasthani languages and the Pahari languages apart from Nepali and in 2001 Dogri whether or not the included varieties were reported as Hindi or under their individual names Pahari as ambiguous but in the census returns the language name most commonly comes from the Western Pahari area 24 See also EditLanguages with official status in India List of endangered languages in IndiaReferences Edit 50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India July 2012 to June 2013 PDF Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities Ministry of Minority Affairs Government of India Archived from the original PDF on 26 December 2014 Retrieved 17 September 2016 How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi These four charts break down India s complex relationship with Hindi Nearly 60 of Indians speak a language other than Hindi 2001 census data In 1991 there were 90 000 000 users of English Census of India Indian Census Archived 2006 12 23 at the Wayback Machine Issue 10 2003 pp 8 10 Feature Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys Bilingualism and Trilingualism and Tropf Herbert S 2004 India and its Languages Archived 2008 03 08 at the Wayback Machine Siemens AG Munich COMPARATIVE SPEAKERS STRENGTH OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES 1971 1981 1991 AND 2001 censusindia gov New Delhi India Office of the Registrar General amp Census Commissioner India Archived from the original on 2007 11 30 Retrieved 2015 10 13 https censusindia gov in census website data census tables Table C 17 Paul Lewis M Simons Gary F Fennig Charles D Fennig eds 2015 Summary by country Ethnologue Languages of the World Eighteenth ed SIL International Jain Bharti 27 June 2018 Hindi mother tongue of 44 in India Bangla second most spoken The Economic Times Retrieved 27 June 2018 Statement 4 Scheduled Languages in descending order of speakers strength 2011 a b c d Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs C 17 POPULATION BY BILINGUALISM AND TRILINGUALISM Archived from the original on 2019 11 13 Retrieved 2019 10 16 Indiaspeak English is our 2nd language Times of India Comparative Speaker s Strength of Scheduled Languages 1971 1981 1991 and 2001 Census of India 1991 Abstract of speakers strength of languages and mother tongues 2000 Census of India 2001 Language PDF Census of India New Delhi Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India 2011 p 15 Retrieved 13 May 2019 Statement 1 Abstract of speakers strength of languages and mother tongues 2011 Statement 2 Distribution of population by Scheduled and other Languages India States and Union Territories 2011 Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People Table MSN Encarta Archived from the original on 2007 12 03 different from Kui language The data are from http www censusindia gov in 2011census C 16 DDW C16 STMT MDDS 0000 XLSX Census Data 2001 General Notes Archived from the original on 22 February 2013 2011 Census tables C 16 population by mother tongue Census of India Website Archived from the original on 10 December 2019 Retrieved 4 November 2018 Masica Colin P 1991 The Indo Aryan languages Cambridge language surveys Cambridge University Press p 439 ISBN 978 0 521 23420 7 General references Edit Data table of Census of India 2001 Language Maps from Central Institute of Indian Languages Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker s strength 2001 Comparative ranking of scheduled languages in descending order of speaker s strength 1971 1981 1991 and 2001 Census data on Languages C 16 Population By Mother Tongue Town Level C 16 Population By Mother TongueExternal links Edit Major Indian Languages Discover India Archived from the original on 1 January 2007 https web archive org web 20050109084200 http www ethnologue com show country asp name India Ethnologue report https web archive org web 20041213203632 http www ciil org Central Institute of Indian Languages Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title List of languages by number of native speakers in India amp oldid 1131543794, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
