Language is an important attribute of a population, and has great relevance and significance in a pluri-lingual and pluri-ethnic land like India. The beauty of India is ‘Unity in Diversity’. India is a home of more than 100 language families. India write in many languages and speak in many more voices.
Writing came in India much earlier than many other civilizations – from the day of the Indus Valley Civilization, by over Four thousand of years ago, and the space has also witnessed emergence of some great writing systems like the Brahmi and the Kharosthi – dating back to roughly 500 B.C.
Today, India is a space with perhaps the largest base of books, authors and publication houses with about at least 70,000 new titles published every year, enjoyed by over 600 million readers of books in India.
What is National Language in India ?
National language like ‘One Nation, One Language’ e.g. in Germany- German is a National language, in China- Chinese. But,
India do not have any national language.
What is Official Language in India ?
The Constitution of India deal with Official Language in Article 343 to 351. Hindi is consider as Official Language of India.
Under Parliament enactment, Use of English in addition to Hindi, compulsory in certain cases. It means, Hindi is an Official Language of Union along with the use English.
Note : Use of Numericals in International form of Indian numericals and not in Devanagari forms of numericals.
About Hindi :
• Hindi written in Devanagari Script (writing from left to right).
• Hindi developed from mixture of languages like Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic etc.
• Hindi is an Indo-Aryan Language.
What is status of Hindi in India ?
• According to Census 2011, Approximately 50% of India’s population speak in Hindi.
• The Constitution impose a duty upon the Centre to promote the spread and development of the Hindi language so that it may become the Lingua Franca of the composite culture of India.
• Hindi Diwas (Hindi Day) celebrate by Government of India on 14th September of every years.
The Constitution does not specify the Official Language of different States. For this, the Legislature of a State may adopt any of one or more of the languages in use in the state or Hindi as the official language of that state.
Until that is done, English to continue as official language of the state.
8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution :
• Today Indian Constitution recognised 22 major Languages of India. Originally, it had 14 languages.
List of 22 languages are –
I. Assamese
II. Bengali
III. Bodo
IV. Dongri
V. Gujarati
VI. Hindi
VII. Kannada
VIII. Kashmiri
IX. Konkani
X. Mathili
XI. Malayalam
XII. Manipuri
XIII. Marathi
XIV. Nepali
XV. Oriya
XVI. Punjabi
XVII. Sanskrit
XVIII. Sindhi
XIX. Tamil
XX. Telugu
XXI. Santhali
XXII. Urdu
Of the total population of India, 96.7% have one of the Schedule languages as their mother tongue, the remaining 3.29% is accounted for by other languages.
Out of 22 Schedule languages, 15 from Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family, 1 in Austro-Asiatic family, 4 in Dravidian family and 2 in Tibeto-Burmese family.
a. Indo-Aryan Language :
1. Assamese, 2. Bengali, 3. Dongri, 4. Gujarati, 5. Hindi, 6. Kashmiri, 7. Konkani, 8. Mathili, 9. Marathi, 10. Nepali, 11. Odia, 12. Punjabi, 13. Sanskrit, 14. Sindhi, and 15. Urdu
b. Dravidian :
1. Kannada, 2. Malayalam, 3. Tamil, and 4. Telugu
c. Austro-Asiatic :
1. Santhali
d. Tibeto-Burmese :
1. Bodo, and 2. Dongri
List of Classical Language of India :
Currently, there are six languages that enjoy the ‘Classical’ status in India :
1. Tamil (declared in 2004)
2. Sanskrit (declared in 2005)
3. Kannada (declared in 2008)
4. Telugu (declared in 2008)
5. Malayalam (declared in 2013)
6. Odia (declared in 2014)
Criteria for Classical Languages in India :
According to Government of India –
i. High antiquity of its early text/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
ii. A body of ancient literature/ texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
iii. The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
iv. The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
The language is particularly useful in the country having diverse people and indiscreet source of information.
Also Read : Details of Indian Classical Languages
References
Census 2011
GoI
E-book