Languages in India

India, a potpourri of different cultures, religions and beliefs, is home to not just one or two languages but to an uncountable number of different lingual families. Languages belonging to the two major language families - Indo Aryan and Dravidian - are spoken by more than 90% of the people of India. Know more about the languages of India with India Language Map.

According to Ethnologue, India is considered to be home to 461 languages, out of which 14 have been reported to be extinct.

But still there is not a single Indian language that is spoken across its length and breadth. Hindi is spoken by a majority of North Indians, but it is not a popular means of communication in the southern part of India. Similarly, South Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are not understood by the people of North India.

For the convenience of people, the Constitution of India has recognised 22 languages in the eighth schedule. These are known as Scheduled Languages and constitute the major languages of the country. India Language Map provides detailed information about these languages listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution and spoken in different parts of the country.

The list of some of the Indian languages includes:


As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the following 22 languages:


Urdu and Telugu are also the official languages of the newly formed state of Telangana.

Besides these, there are other languages, which are spoken by large masses but have still not acquired the status of Scheduled Languages of India. These languages spoken by regional people are known as regional languages of India. These include Rajasthani, Haryanvi, Bhili, Gondi and Tulu among others.

Some Indian languages are not widely spoken and have been given the status of minority languages. Mahl and Portuguese languages come under this category.

List by number of native speakers in India

The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers

Rank Language 2011 census
    Speakers Percentage
1 Hindi 52,83,47,193 43.63%
2 Bengali 9,72,37,669 8.03%
3 Telugu 8,11,27,740 6.70%
4 Marathi 8,30,26,680 6.86%
5 Tamil 6,90,26,881 5.70%
6 Urdu 5,07,72,631 4.19%
7 Gujarati 5,54,92,554 4.58%
8 Kannada 4,37,06,512 3.61%
9 Malayalam 3,48,38,819 2.88%
10 Oriya 3,75,21,324 3.10%
11 Punjabi 3,31,24,726 2.74%
12 Assamese 1,53,11,351 1.26%
13 Maithili 1,35,83,464 1.12%
14 Bhili/Bhilodi 1,04,13,637 8.67%
15 Santali 73,68,192 13.89%
16 Kashmiri 67,97,587 0.56%
17 Nepali 29,26,168 0.24%
18 Gondi 29,84,453 9.97%
19 Sindhi 27,72,264 0.23%
20 Konkani 22,56,502 0.19%
21 Dogri 25,96,767 0.21%
22 Khandeshi 18,60,236 -10.36%
23 Kurukh 19,88,350 13.52%
24 Tulu 18,46,427 7.18%
25 Meitei/Manipuri 17,61,079 0.15%
26 Bodo 14,82,929 0.12%
27 Khasi 14,31,344 26.83%
28 Mundari 11,28,228 6.30%
29 Ho 14,21,418 36.32%
30 Garo 11,45,323 28.76%
31 Tripuri 10,11,294 18.42%

Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011

S. No. Language Persons who returned the language as their mother tongue Percentage to total population
1 Hindi 52,83,47,193 43.63
2 Bengali 9,72,37,669 8.03
4 Marathi 8,30,26,680 6.86
3 Telugu 8,11,27,740 6.70
5 Tamil 6,90,26,881 5.70
7 Gujarati 5,54,92,554 4.58
6 Urdu 5,07,72,631 4.19
8 Kannada 4,37,06,512 3.61
10 Oriya 3,75,21,324 3.1
9 Malayalam 3,48,38,819 2.88
11 Punjabi 3,31,24,726 2.74
12 Assamese 1,53,11,351 1.26
13 Maithili 1,35,83,464 1.12
14 Santali 73,68,192 0.61
15 Kashmiri 67,97,587 0.56
16 Nepali 29,26,168 0.24
17 Sindhi 27,72,264 0.23
18 Konkani 22,56,502 0.19
19 Dogri 25,96,767 0.21
20 Manipuri 17,61,079 0.15
21 Bodo 14,82,929 0.12
22 Sanskrit 24,821 N

States official languages

SL NO STATES Official Languages Additional Official Languages
1 Andhra Pradesh Telugu Urdu
2 Arunachal Pradesh English  
3 Assam Assamese  
4 Bihar Hindi Urdu
5 Chhattisgarh Hindi  
6 Goa Konkani Marathi
7 Gujarat Gujarati  
8 Haryana Hindi  
9 Himachal Pradesh Hindi English
10 Jharkhand Hindi Urdu
11 Karnataka Kannada  
12 Kerala Malayalam  
13 Madhya Pradesh Hindi  
14 Maharashtra Marathi  
15 Manipur Manipuri English
16 Meghalaya English Khasi
17 Mizoram Mizo, English, Hindi  
18 Nagaland English  
19 Odisha Odia  
20 Punjab Punjabi (in Gurumukhi Script)  
21 Rajasthan Hindi English
22 Sikkim English  
23 Tamil Nadu Tamil English
24 Telangana Telugu and Urdu  
25 Tripura Bengali, Kokborok and English  
26 Uttar Pradesh Hindi Urdu
27 Uttarakhand Hindi  
28 West Bengal Bengali Hindi, Urdu, Santhali, Oriya and Punjabi, Nepali
SL NO Union Territory Official Languages Other officially recognised languages
1 Andaman and Nicobar Islands English, Hindi  
2 Chandigarh English Punjabi and Hindi
3 Dadra and Nagar Haveli Hindi and Gujarati Marathi
4 Daman and Diu Konkani and Gujarati  
5 Delhi Hindi Punjabi, Urdu
6 Lakshadweep English Hindi
7 Puducherry Tamil, English Malayalam and Telugu
8 Jammu and Kashmir Urdu  
9 Ladakh Ladakhi  

SOURCES:

50th REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR LINGUISTIC MINORITIES IN INDIA (July 2012 to June 2013)

http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/ NCLM50thReport.pdf


Other local languages and dialects

The 2011 census identified the following native languages having more than one million speakers. All of them are dialects/variants grouped under Hindi

sl no state speakers
1 Haryanvi 322,230,097
2 Bhojpuri 50,579,447
3 Rajasthani 25,806,344
4 Chhattisgarhi 16,245,190
5 Magadh/Magahi 12,706,825
6 Khorth/Khotta 8,038,735
7 Marwari 7,831,749
8 Bundeli/Bundelkhan 5,626,356
9 Malvi 5,212,617
10 Sadan/Sadri 4,345,677
11 Mewari 4,212,262
12 Awadhi 3,850,906
13 Laman/Lambadi 3,276,548
14 Pahari 3,253,889
15 Harauti 2,944,356
16 Bagheli/Baghel Khan 2,679,129
17 Garhwali 2,482,089
18 Nimadi 2,309,265
19 Nimadi 2,309,265
20 Surjapuri 2,256,228
21 Kumauni 2,081,057
22 Surgujia 1,738,256
23 Surgujia 1,738,256
24 Banjari 1,581,271
25 Brajbhasha 1,556,314
26 Dhundhari 1,476,446
27 Gojri/Gujjari/Gujar 1,227,901
28 Kangri 1,117,342