Eighth Schedule to the constitution of India and list of official languages

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The Eighth Schedule to the constitution of India lists the official languages of India. Although there are hundreds of languages spoken across the country, the eighth schedule recognises a total of 22 languages as the official languages. While 14 of these languages were included in the constitution at first, the rest of the languages were added to the constitution through subsequent amendments.

1. Assamese

• The language is mostly spoken in the north-eastern state of Assam and also serves as the region's lingua franca.
• It is spoken by more than 23 million people.

2. Bengali

• Also known as 'Bangla', this official language is spoken by almost 300 million people.
• Additionally, it is also the official and national language of Bangladesh.

3. Gujarati

• This language is the official language in Gujarat, as well in the Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• This language is spoken by over 55.5 million people.

4. Hindi

• This language is spoken across northern, central, eastern and western India.
• Additionally, it is one of the two official languages of the Government of India and is spoken by almost 322 million speakers.

5. Kannada

• Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken mostly by Karnataka residents in India's southern area.
• It is spoken by approximately 43 million people as of 2011.

6. Kashmiri

• It became an official language of the UT of Jammu & Kashmir in 2020 and is mostly spoken by the people of the region.
• There are approximately 7 million speakers of the language.

7. Konkani

• It is mostly spoken in the Konkan region, which includes Goa and coastal areas of some other states.
• It is spoken by almost 2.3 million people.

8. Malayalam

• Spoken by the Malayali people, this language is spoken in Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and is spoken by 34 million people worldwide.

9. Manipuri

• Also known as Meitei, or Meetei, this language is spoken in the northeastern state of Manipur and has almost 1.8 million speakers worldwide and is currently classified as a "vulnerable language" by UNESCO.

10. Marathi

• Spoken in the state of Maharashtra, it has 83 million speakers, making it the third in terms of native speakers after Hindi and Bengali.

11. Nepali

• Native to Nepal, Nepali has been one of the 22 scheduled languages of India because of the presence of the Nepalese community in the North-east region.

12. Oriya

• It is spoken in Odisha, in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh by about 35 million people worldwide.

13. Punjabi

• Spoken by people of Punjab in both India and Pakistan, Punjabi is the third most-spoken native language in the Indian subcontinent.
• It also has a significant number of speakers abroad due to the widespread Punjabi diaspora.

14 Sanskrit:

• This ancient language served as the sacred language of Hinduism and Hindu philosophy.

15. Sindhi

• Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Sindhi people in the ancient Sindh area on the western Indian subcontinent.
• It is still spoken by 1.68 million people as of the 2011 census.

16. Tamil

• Tamil is a Classical Dravidian language spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia as their first language.
• Tamil has 75 million speakers and is among the longest-surviving classical languages in the world.

17. Telugu

• Telugu is a Dravidian language spoken mostly by Telugu people in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India, where it is also the official language.
• It is spoken by approximately 82 million people.

18. Urdu

• Spoken throughout South Asia, Urdu has approximately 230 million speakers.

19. Bodo

• Bodo (also known as Boro) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Boro people of Northeast India, Nepal, and Bengal.
• It has approximately 1.4 million speakers.

20. Santhali

• Predominantly spoken in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura, and West Bengal, Santhali is spoken by approximately 2.6 million people.

21. Maithili

• Maithili is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Nepal and portions of India as it is spoken in Bihar and northeastern Jharkhand in India.
• It had 33.9 million speakers as of the year 2000.

22. Dogri

• Spoken mostly in Jammu of Jammu and Kashmir, it is also spoken in western Himachal Pradesh, and the northern Punjab region.
• It is spoken by approximately 2.6 million people.