Official languages

Two languages are the languages used by the central administration:

1. Hindi is the language used by the Central Government when communicating with the

states of Hindi Belt 2. English is the Associate official language and the language to be used while communicating with the states.

Recognized national languages of India

A total of 22 languages are recognized by the Constitution of India: Assamese official language of Assam Bengali official language of Tripura and West Bengal Bodo official language of Assam Dogri official language of Jammu and Kashmir Gujarati official language of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Gujarat Hindi official language of Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal 7. Kannada official language of Karnataka 8. Kashmiri official language of Jammu and Kashmir 9. Konkani official language of Goa and Mangalore 10. Malayalam official language of Kerala and Lakshadweep 11. Manipuri or Meithei official language of Manipur 12. Marathi official language of Maharashtra 13. Nepali official language of Sikkim 14. Oriya official language of Orissa 15. Punjabi official language of Punjab and Chandigarh, second official language of Delhi and Haryana 16. Sanskrit language of Hinduism, required teaching in many schools 17. Santali - language of the Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh) 18. Sindhi - language of the Sindhi community 19. Tamil official language of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry 20. Telugu official language of Andhra Pradesh 21. Urdu official language of Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Other Important State languages

These languages are state official languages but are not yet recognized as national languages:
1. 2. 3. 4.

Kokborok - official language of Tripura Mizo - official language of Mizoram Khasi - official language of Meghalaya Garo - official language of Meghalaya

Other popular languages of India

These languages have over 5 million speakers but no official status. Many are often considered sub-varieties of Hindi.

Bihari languages
These three Bihari languages also have over 5 million speakers but no official status. They were once mistakenly thought to be dialects of Hindi, but have been more recently shown to be part of the Eastern Group of Indic languages, along with Bengali, Assamese, and Oriya.
1. Angika language of Bihar, Spoken largely in the Northern and Southern part of Bihar,

Major part of Jharkhand and Maldah district of West Bengal 2. Bhojpuri language of Bihar 3. Magadhi language of southern Bihar

Rajasthani languages
Rajasthani dialect is spoken in state of Rajasthan by more than fifty million people, the dialect changes from district to district but people could communicate with each other even if they are from different districts and have different dilects.The main varities are as such.
1. Marwari language of Marwar. The region including Jodhpur,Nagour and Bikaner. 2. Mewari language of Mewar. The region including Udaipur, Chittor and Kota-Bundi. 3. Shekhavati language of Shekhavati. The region including Sikar, Churu, Jhunjhunu.

Other languages
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Bhili (Bhil tribals) Gondi (Gond tribals) Kodava, spoken in the Kodagu district of Karnataka Kutchi language of Kutch, a region in Gujarat Tulu spoken by Tulu people of Karnataka and Kerala Sankethi spoken by Sankethi people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

The Constitution of India lists 18 regional languages.

Minority languages of India

These languages have fewer than one million speakers:
1. Mahl language of Minicoy, spoken in the island of Minicoy.