The Republic of 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 (precisely Munda and Khasic) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (precisely Tibeto-Burman) (c. 0.8%), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue lists 424 living languages in India.
Overview
India has not had a national language since its independence in 1947. However, Rule 1976 (As Amended, 1987) of the Constitution of India, mandates 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 recognises 22 regional languages, named in a specific list as "Scheduled Languages". (Hindi is 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, mostly prevalent in the northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of the "Hindi Belt". 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. 12% of Indians declared that they can speak English as a second language.
Hindi is the fastest growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri in the second place, with Meitei (officially called Manipuri) as well as Gujarati, in the third place, and Bengali in the fourth place, according to the 2011 census of India.
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 2011 census of India, 24,821 people reported Sanskrit as their native language). 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.
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.
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.
List of languages by number of native speakers
Ordered by number of speakers as first language.
More than one million speakers
The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total population). The languages in bold, for all tables, are the 22 scheduled languages.
The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for the 22 scheduled languages and English. In this table, only 2 languages, namely Sanskrit and English, have less than 1 million native speakers.
| First language speakers | Second language speakers | Third language speakers | Total speakers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Figure | % of total population | Figure | % of total population | ||
| Hindi | 528,347,193 | 43.63% | 138,909,608 | 24,307,234 | 691,564,035 | 57.11% |
| Bengali | 97,237,669 | 8.03% | 9,095,810 | 1,138,764 | 107,472,243 | 8.88% |
| Marathi | 83,026,680 | 6.86% | 13,001,079 | 3,031,027 | 99,058,786 | 8.18% |
| Telugu | 81,127,740 | 6.70% | 12,167,609 | 1,206,254 | 94,501,603 | 7.80% |
| Tamil | 69,026,881 | 5.70% | 6,668,000 | 900,985 | 76,595,866 | 6.33% |
| Gujarati | 55,492,554 | 4.58% | 4,017,825 | 778,930 | 60,289,309 | 4.98% |
| Urdu | 50,772,631 | 4.19% | 11,348,978 | 1,117,836 | 63,239,445 | 5.22% |
| Kannada | 43,706,512 | 3.61% | 13,609,709 | 1,434,578 | 58,750,799 | 4.85% |
| Odia | 37,521,324 | 3.10% | 4,670,796 | 397,213 | 42,589,333 | 3.52% |
| Malayalam | 34,838,819 | 2.88% | 581,591 | 218,932 | 35,639,342 | 2.94% |
| Punjabi | 33,124,726 | 2.74% | 2,237,126 | 719,901 | 36,081,753 | 2.98% |
| Assamese | 15,311,351 | 1.26% | 7,583,346 | 734,379 | 23,629,076 | 1.95% |
| Maithili | 13,583,464 | 1.12% | 651,987 | 48,843 | 14,284,294 | 1.18% |
| Santali | 7,368,192 | 0.61% | 278,448 | 76,663 | 7,723,303 | 0.64% |
| Kashmiri | 6,797,587 | 0.56% | 127,039 | 70,197 | 6,994,823 | 0.58% |
| Nepali | 2,926,168 | 0.24% | 366,648 | 143,798 | 3,436,614 | 0.28% |
| Sindhi | 2,772,264 | 0.23% | 281,177 | 48,591 | 3,102,032 | 0.26% |
| Dogri | 2,596,767 | 0.21% | 126,334 | 40,883 | 2,763,984 | 0.23% |
| Konkani | 2,256,502 | 0.19% | 238,345 | 87,134 | 2,581,981 | 0.21% |
| Meitei | 1,761,079 | 0.15% | 384,357 | 101,690 | 2,247,126 | 0.19% |
| Bodo | 1,482,929 | 0.12% | 57,583 | 20,132 | 1,560,644 | 0.13% |
| English | 259,678 | 0.02% | 82,717,239 | 45,562,173 | 128,539,090 | 10.62% |
| Sanskrit | 24,821 | 0.002% | 1,134,362 | 1,963,640 | 3,122,823 | 0.26% |
| Rank | Language | 1991 census of India (total: 838,583,988) | 2001 census of India (total: 1,028,610,328) | 2011 Census of India (total: 1,210,854,977) | Encarta 2007 estimate Worldwide total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speakers | Percentage | Speakers | Percentage | Speakers | Percentage | Speakers | ||
| 1 | Hindi | 329,518,087 | 39.29% | 422,048,642 | 41.1% | 528,347,193 | 43.63% | 366 million |
| 2 | Bengali | 69,595,738 | 8.30% | 83,193,311 | 8.09% | 97,237,669 | 8.03% | 207 million |
| 3 | Marathi | 62,481,681 | 7.45% | 71,936,894 | 6.99% | 83,026,680 | 6.86% | 68.0 million |
| 4 | Telugu | 66,017,615 | 7.87% | 74,002,856 | 7.19% | 81,127,740 | 6.70% | 69.7 million |
| 5 | Tamil | 53,006,368 | 6.32% | 60,793,814 | 5.91% | 69,026,881 | 5.70% | 66.0 million |
| 6 | Gujarati | 40,673,814 | 4.85% | 46,091,617 | 4.48% | 55,492,554 | 4.58% | 46.1 million |
| 7 | Urdu | 43,406,932 | 5.18% | 51,536,111 | 5.01% | 50,772,631 | 4.19% | 60.3 million |
| 8 | Kannada | 32,753,676 | 3.91% | 37,924,011 | 3.69% | 43,706,512 | 3.61% | 35.3 million |
| 9 | Odia | 28,061,313 | 3.35% | 33,017,446 | 3.21% | 37,521,324 | 3.10% | 32.3 million |
| 10 | Malayalam | 30,377,176 | 3.62% | 33,066,392 | 3.21% | 34,838,819 | 2.88% | 35.7 million |
| 11 | Punjabi | 23,378,744 | 2.79% | 29,102,477 | 2.83% | 33,124,726 | 2.74% | 57.1 million |
| 12 | Assamese | 13,079,696 | 1.56% | 13,168,484 | 1.28% | 15,311,351 | 1.26% | 15.4 million |
| 13 | Maithili | 7,766,921 | 0.926% | 12,179,122 | 1.18% | 13,583,464 | 1.12% | 24.2 million |
| 14 | 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 million |
| 19 | Sindhi | 2,122,848 | 0.253% | 2,535,485 | 0.25% | 2,772,264 | 0.23% | 19.7 million |
| 20 | 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
| Rank | Language | 2001 census | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speakers | Percentage | ||
| 32 | 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 | Chakma | 176,458 | 0.017% |
| 50 | Lotha | 170,001 | 0.017% |
| 51 | Coorgi/Kodagu | 166,187 | 0.016% |
| 52 | Rabha | 164,770 | 0.016% |
| 53 | Tangkhul | 142,035 | 0.014% |
| 54 | Kisan | 141,088 | 0.014% |
| 55 | Angami | 132,225 | 0.013% |
| 56 | Phom | 122,508 | 0.012% |
| 57 | Kolami | 121,855 | 0.012% |
| 58 | Khond/Kondh | 118,597 | 0.012% |
| 59 | Dimasa | 111,961 | 0.011% |
| 60 | Ladakhi | 104,618 | 0.010% |
| 61 | Sema | 103,529 | 0.010% |
List of mother tongues by number of speakers
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). 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."
The following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers according to the 2011 census:
| Rank | Mother tongue | 2011 census | Included in language | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speakers | Percentage | |||
| 1 | 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% | Hindi |
| 9 | 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% | Hindi |
| 14 | Chhattisgarhi | 16,250,000 | 1.34% | Hindi |
| 15 | Assamese | 14,820,000 | 1.22% | |
| 16 | Maithili | 13,350,000 | 1.10% | |
| 17 | Magahi | 12,710,000 | 1.05% | Hindi |
| 18 | Haryanvi | 9,807,000 | 0.810% | Hindi |
| 19 | Khortha/Khotta | 8,039,000 | 0.664% | Hindi |
| 20 | Marwari | 7,832,000 | 0.647% | Hindi |
| 21 | Santali | 6,973,000 | 0.576% | |
| 22 | Kashmiri | 6,554,000 | 0.541% | |
| 23 | Bundeli/Bundel khandi | 5,626,000 | 0.465% | Hindi |
| 24 | Malvi | 5,213,000 | 0.430% | Hindi |
| 25 | Sadan/Sadri | 4,346,000 | 0.359% | Hindi |
| 26 | Mewari | 4,212,000 | 0.348% | Hindi |
| 27 | Awadhi | 3,851,000 | 0.318% | Hindi |
| 28 | Wagdi | 3,394,000 | 0.280% | Bhili/Bhilodi |
| 29 | Lamani/Lambadi | 3,277,000 | 0.271% | Hindi |
| 30 | Pahari | 3,254,000 | 0.269% | Hindi |
| 31 | Bhili/Bhilodi | 3,207,000 | 0.265% | |
| 32 | Hara/Harauti | 2,944,000 | 0.243% | Hindi |
| 33 | Nepali | 2,926,000 | 0.242% | |
| 34 | Gondi | 2,857,000 | 0.236% | |
| 35 | Bagheli/Baghel Khandi | 2,679,000 | 0.221% | Hindi |
| 36 | Sambalpuri | 2,630,000 | 0.217% | Odia |
| 37 | Dogri | 2,597,000 | 0.214% | |
| 38 | Garhwali | 2,482,000 | 0.205% | Hindi |
| 39 | Nimadi | 2,309,000 | 0.191% | Hindi |
| 40 | Surjapuri | 2,256,000 | 0.186% | Hindi |
| 41 | Konkani | 2,147,000 | 0.177% | |
| 42 | Kumauni | 2,081,000 | 0.172% | Hindi |
| 43 | 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% | Hindi |
| 47 | Sindhi | 1,679,000 | 0.139% | |
| 48 | Bagri | 1,657,000 | 0.137% | Punjabi |
| 49 | Ahirani | 1,636,000 | 0.135% | Khandeshi |
| 50 | Banjari | 1,581,000 | 0.131% | Hindi |
| 51 | Brajbhasha | 1,556,000 | 0.129% | Hindi |
| 52 | Dhundhari | 1,476,000 | 0.122% | Hindi |
| 53 | Bodo/Boro | 1,455,000 | 0.120% | Bodo |
| 54 | Ho | 1,411,000 | 0.117% | |
| 55 | Gojri/Gujjari/Gujar | 1,228,000 | 0.101% | Hindi |
| 56 | Mundari | 1,128,000 | 0.093% | |
| 57 | Garo | 1,125,000 | 0.093% | |
| 58 | Kangri | 1,117,000 | 0.092% | Hindi |
| 59 | Khasi | 1,038,000 | 0.086% | |
| 60 | Kachchhi | 1,031,000 | 0.085% | Sindhi |
See also
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