What is the National Language of India?

India, a union of 28 states and 8 union territories, has a wide range of languages which vary after a few hundreds of kilometres. Since the establishment of the constitution, there have been many discussions on the national language. However, India does not have a national language. A national language and an official language are two different things.

No language was given the designation of national language by our Constitution. 14 languages were initially listed in the Indian constitution on the country’s independence.

Official Languages of India

Hindi written in Devanagari was declared as the official language of the union by the Indian constitution in 1950. The use of English for official purposes was to end 15 years after the constitution took effect, or on January 26, 1965, unless Parliament voted otherwise. However, the idea of the switchover caused great concern in India’s non-Hindi speaking regions, particularly in the Dravidian-speaking states, whose languages had no connection to Hindi at all. As a result, the Official Languages Act, 1963 was passed by Parliament which guaranteed that Hindi and English would continue to be used for official purposes beyond 1965.

Official Language as per the Indian Constitution, Article 343

As per Article 343(l), the Parliament may by law provide for the use of Hindi in addition to English for certain purposes, including the following:

• The business of the Supreme Court;
• The business of the High Courts;
• The business of any tribunal or other authority appointed by the President;
• The transaction of business in Parliament.

Article 343(l) also states that Hindi shall be replaced by English for certain purposes, including the following

• The communication between the Union and a State;
• The communication between the Union and a public servant;
• The communication between a public servant and a person who is not a citizen of India;
• The correspondence between the President and the Governors of States;
• The correspondence between the Vice-President and the Speaker of the House of the People;
• The correspondence between Ministers and Chief Ministers.

The Constitution does not give any preferential status to any language. The official languages of India are decided by the Parliament through legislation.

Scheduled Languages of India

It is important to note that Hindi is not declared the national language of India. It is spoken by the majority of the population. 

As per Article 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the 22 regional languages which are called scheduled languages. The languages included in this list were entitled to representation in the Official Language Commission at the time the Constitution came into force and would serve as one of the foundations used to enrich Hindi and English, the official languages of the Union. But since then the importance of this list has increased. Now, the Government of India needs to take action to promote the development of these languages so that “they grow rapidly in prosperity and become effective means of modern knowledge communication.” In addition, candidates are permitted to use any of these languages while answering questions in the examination held for public service.

These 22 scheduled languages as follows:-

• Assamese
• Bengali
• Bodo
• Dogri
• Gujarati
• Hindi
• Kannada
• Kashmiri
• Konkani
• Maithili
• Malayalam
• Manipuri
• Marathi
• Nepali
• Odia
• Punjabi
• Sanskrit
• Santali
• Sindhi
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Urdu

Important Points:

1950: 14 scheduled languages were initially included in the Constitution.

1967: Sindhi was added by the 21st Constitutional Amendment Act.

1992: Konkani, Manipuri (Meitei) and Nepali were added by the 71st Constitutional Amendment Act

2003: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali were added by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act.

2011: The spelling Oriya was replaced by Odia by the 96th Constitutional Amendment Act.

Conclusion

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution lists out these 22 languages. In addition, there are several other dialects spoken in different parts of the country. The Government of India is committed to promoting the spread of Hindi and developing it as a link language. The Government has also decided to promote the use of regional languages through mass media and Information Technology. The Constitution envisages that the Union government shall endeavour to secure the enrichment of these languages and their spread within the territory of India.