Indianlanguage

Indian language refers to the languages used in India and the country’s broad linguistic landscape. India is among the most multilingual societies in the world, with hundreds of languages and a wide variety of scripts in everyday use. Language communities often maintain strong regional identities, while many speakers are fluent in several languages.

Linguistically, India hosts speakers from major language families, including Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, and Assamese; Dravidian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam; as well as minority families like Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman. Regional languages vary widely and serve as primary means of communication in education, media, administration, and culture.

Official status and policy. The Constitution recognizes twenty-two languages in the Eighth Schedule, including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and others. At the national level, Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language, with English also used for official purposes. Many states have their own official languages and state-level language policies, reflecting local linguistic diversity. Language policy encourages multilingual education and the use of the mother tongue in early schooling where feasible.

Scripts. Indian languages employ a wide range of scripts, such as Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit), Bengali script, Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, and Perso-Arabic-derived scripts for Urdu and others.

Use and media. Language plays a central role in education, administration, media, literature, and technology, with ongoing efforts to promote linguistic heritage, digital inclusion, and language development across communities.