Indian Languages, List, UPSC Notes

India has a rich heritage of languages and literature. Many languages have emerged over the centuries. Some of them may not be spoken now, but they have left a rich literary legacy and a lasting influence on practically all Indian languages. The Indians speak languages belonging to four distinct speech families: Austric, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan, and Indo-European. 

As per the 2011 census, there are as many as 122 languages and 234 mother tongues in the country with over 10,000 people speaking each of these languages. 

Indian Languages Diversity

India is a unique country with a rich language heritage. Multilingualism is a way of life, with people speaking multiple languages from birth and learning additional languages throughout their lives.

• Languages in India: The Peoples Linguistic Survey of India has identified 780 languages, of which 50 have been extinct in the past five decades.
• Eight-Schedule: The Indian Constitution recognized 22 languages under the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
• Classical languages: Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia have been recognized as classical languages with special status and recognition by the Government of India.

Indian Languages Writing Systems

A writing system comprises a particular set of symbols, called a script, as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. Since the invention of scripts by humans, writing has been a reflection of the culture, lifestyle, society, and polity of contemporary society. 

• The Indus Valley Script: The ancient Indus script has not yet been deciphered. The main corpus of writing includes 2,000 inscribed brief seals and tablets of 6 to 26 symbols.
• The Brahmi script: Brahmi script, dating back to the 8th Century B.C., is a syllabic alphabet with each character carrying a consonant and neutral vowel "a" and using extra strokes to combine different vowels.
• The Kharosthi script: It appeared in 3rd c. BC in northern Pakistan and east Afghanistan. Kharosthi was used primarily for the Prakrit dialect of Gandhari.
• Modern-day writing systems: Although Indian writing systems number at least 25, the major scripts are 14, out of which 12 originated from the Brahmi. 
  • Like the Greek alphabet, it had many local variants and gave rise to many Asian scripts - Burmese, Thai, Tibetan, etc.

Indian Languages Family

The languages are usually described in terms of their placement in the classification of languages, families, branches, or groups, which are decided based on the grammatical characteristics of a specific language. The languages of India are classified into four distinct families, viz., Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman.

The Indo-European Languages 

The largest chunk of languages and mother tongues belong to the Indo-Aryan sub-family of Indo-European languages. The immediate predecessor of Indo-Aryan happens to be Indo-Iranian, the oldest specimens of which are available in the Zend-Avesta.

• In India, three sub-branches of the Indo-European language family exist namely Indo-Aryan, Iranian, and Germanic.
  • Indo-Aryan: Assamese, Bengali, Bhili/Bhilodi, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Urdu.
  • Iranian group: The only language present in India is Afghani/Kabuli/Pashto.
  • Germanic group: English is the only language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family.

The Dravidian Languages 

The family embraces four major regional language areas of southern India i.e., Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. These four languages are counted as 96.16 percent of the total number of Dravidian language speakers in the country. 

• The antiquity of Dravidian languages is largely due to the rich grammatical and linguistic-literary tradition of Classical Tamil.
• Besides these four languages, there are 26 Dravidian languages by the current count, of which 25 are spoken in India and one (Brahui) is spoken in Balochistan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
• The Springer Nature Group hypothesized that speakers of ancestral Dravidian languages had a stronger historical presence in northern India, including the Indus Valley region from where they migrated.

The Austric Family 

The Austric family of languages is divided into two branches, Austroasiatic and Austronesian, the latter formerly called Malayo-Polynesian. They are spoken in India, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. 

• According to Census 2011, in India, the Austro-Asiatic family is represented by the speakers belonging to the: 
  • Munda branch, which inhabits the central and eastern parts of the country mostly in Jharkhand, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.
  • Mon-Khmer branch including the Khasi group of languages of Meghalaya and Nicobarese of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• There are 14 Austro-Asiatic languages spoken in India.

The Tibeto-Burman Languages

The Tibeto-Burman family is a part of Sino-Tibetan languages, it forms a significant language family spoken in various central and South Asian countries, including India.

• The two main sub-families of the family are Siamese-Chinese and Tibeto Burman.
• Except Khampti, the only representative of the Siamese Chinese sub-family, all the languages of the Tibeto-Chinese family spoken in India belong to the Tibeto-Burman sub-family.
• At present, 66 Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in India. 

Major Languages in India

Language is an important characteristic of a population, particularly in a multicultural country like India. Here are some major languages of India in the table below: 

Tribal Language

Languages of India, like the culture and tribes of India, are numerous. Indian tribal languages can be defined as essentially “folk” languages, spoken by people of ethnic groups who prefer to live in relatively isolated groups.

• Features: 
• Indian tribal languages are extremely orderly and well organized due to a developed past and enlightened educational interference.
• They are preserved orally in songs, folktales, and legends, with folk tales primarily comprising these languages and dialects.
• Leading tribal language-speaking tribes groups comprise Garo, Chakma, Naga, Gond, Mizo, Santhali, Khasia, Oraon, and Manipuri tribesmen.
• Only 7 tribal languages have a script. They are Santali (Olchiki), Saora (Sorang Sampeng), Ho (Warangchiti), Kui (Kui Script), Oraon (Kukhud Tod), Mundari (Bani Hisir), Bhumij (Bhumij Anl).
• Tribal languages prevalent in India: Abujmaria, Garo, Aaria, Tsangla, Saurashtri, etc. 
  • The Paite, Thadou, Hmar, and Tangkhul languages are some of the tribal languages spoken in most of the northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Threats

According to UNESCO, any language that is spoken by <10,000 people is potentially endangered. Some 197 languages are in various stages of endangerment in India. The following are the threats and reasons for the endangerment/extinction of languages in India. 

• Globalisation: The repository of languages, dialects, and the cultural heritage associated with it was sinking under globalisation, which has been constantly threatening its extinction.
• Supremacy of English: The introduction of English in India during the colonial period threatened our native language, allowing us to continue being ruled by language-superior forces. English's global importance reflects its superiority over our linguistic heritage.
• Lack of data on many languages: From 1971 onwards, the Census only counts languages with more than 10,000 speakers. 
  • In the absence of thorough surveys of languages, it is difficult to determine how many languages there are in existence. 
• Lack of writing system and endangered languages: In India, 197 languages are categorised as endangered. Out of these, only two languages, Boro and Meithei - have official status in India while many others do not even have a writing system.
• Many unscripted languages: One of the reasons behind languages becoming extinct is that the government currently defines a language as one that is marked by a script. As a result of this, more unscripted languages are now facing the danger of extinction. 
  • Most of these languages are spoken by marginalised communities.

Preservation of Indian Languages

Preserving languages is vital for cultural heritage, identity, and communication. Languages carry unique knowledge, traditions, and ways of thinking. The following are some of the measures undertaken to preserve the languages in India: 

• Constitutional provisions: Articles 343–351 of Part XVII of the Constitution deal with the official language.
  • The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution. 
• Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India: The Central Institute of Indian Languages is implementing a scheme to safeguard, preserve, and document all endangered languages spoken by less than 10,000 Indians.
• Central Institute of Indian Languages: It was set up in 1969 to help in evolving and implementing the language policy of the Government of India and to coordinate the development of Indian Languages. 
• Other Initiatives: The University Grants Commission has launched two schemes to protect endangered languages: 'Funding Support to State Universities for Indigenous and Endangered Languages Study and Research' and 'Establishment of Centres for Endangered Languages'.

Indian Languages UPSC PYQs

Question 1: With reference to India, the terms ‘Halbi, Ho, and Kui’ pertain to (UPSC Prelims 2021)

1. Dance forms of Northwest India
2. Musical instruments
3. Pre-historic cave paintings
4. Tribal Languages

Answer: (d)

Question 2: Which one of the following was given classical language status recently? (UPSC Prelims 2015)

1.  Odia
2.  Konkani
3.  Bhojpuri
4.  Assamese

Answer: (a)

Question 3: Consider the following languages (UPSC Prelims 2014)

1. Gujarati
2. Kannada
3. Telugu

Which of the above has/have been declared as 'Classical Language / Languages' by the Government?

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 3 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (c)

Indian Languages FAQs

Q1. What are the 22 official languages of India?

Ans. The twenty-two languages that are recognised by the Constitution are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.

Q2. What are the four families of Indian languages?

Ans. The languages of India are classified into four distinct families, viz., the Indo-European, the Dravidian, the Austro-Asiatic, and the Tibeto-Burman.

Q3. What is Article 343 of the Indian Constitution?

Ans. Article 343 says that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. ⁠The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.