Languages of India

There is no national language in India. Rather, Hindi is the "official" language.^[1][2][3] There are various recognised languages in India depending on the state or territory you are in. However, section 343(1) of the Indian constitution directly states: "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals."^[3] The business in Indian parliament can only be transacted in Hindi or in English. English is allowed to be used in official purposes such as parliamentary proceedings, judiciary, and communications between the central government and a state government.

Part of a series on
Constitutionally recognised languages of India
Category
Scheduled Languages
A Assamese B Bengali Bodo D Dogri G Gujarati H Hindi K Kannada Kashmiri Konkani M Maithili Malayalam Marathi Meitei (Manipuri) N Nepali O Odia (Oriya) P Punjabi S Sanskrit Santali Sindhi T Tamil Telugu U Urdu
Related
Official languages of India Languages with official status in India

The Constitution lists 22 scheduled languages of India: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.^[4]

List of Languages of the Indian State

This table shows the most spoken language and other official languages in each Indian state or territory.

State / Union Territory	Most Spoken Language	Other Official Languages
Andhra Pradesh	Telugu
Arunachal Pradesh	English	Nyishi
Assam	Assamese
Bihar	Hindi
Chhattisgarh	Hindi
Goa	Konkani
Gujarat	Gujarati
Haryana	Hindi
Himachal Pradesh	Hindi
Jharkhand	Hindi
Karnataka	Kannada
Kerala	Malayalam
Madhya Pradesh	Hindi
Maharashtra	Marathi
Manipur	Meitei
Meghalaya	Khasi	English
Mizoram	Mizo	English
Nagaland	English	Angami
Odisha	Odia
Punjab	Punjabi
Rajasthan	Hindi
Sikkim	Nepali	English, Sikkimese (Bhutia), Lepcha
Tamil Nadu	Tamil
Telangana	Telugu
Tripura	Bengali	Kokborok, English
Uttar Pradesh	Hindi
Uttarakhand	Hindi
West Bengal	Bengali
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (UT)	Hindi	English
Chandigarh (UT)	Hindi	Punjabi, English
Dadra & Nagar Haveli (UT)	Gujarati	Hindi, English
Daman & Diu (UT)	Gujrati	Hindi, English
Delhi (NCT)	Hindi	English, Punjabi, Urdu
Jammu & Kashmir (UT)	Kashmiri	Dogri, Hindi, Urdu, English
Ladakh (UT)	Ladakhi	Hindi, English, Urdu
Lakshadweep (UT)	Malayalam	Jeseri, Mahl, English
Puducherry (UT)	Tamil	Telugu, Malayalam, French, English

Notice: When a state is marked with (UT), it means it is an Indian territory, not state. An example is that Puerto Rico is a US territory or Hong Kong is a Chinese territory. If there is a blank space in the third column, that means there is only one official language.

Related pages

• Languages of South Asia