India is well-known for its cultural and linguistic diversity. It is one of the few countries in the world where even within a short distance, one might experience a striking shift in the dominant language spoken. One of the most linguistically diverse countries is India, home to 270 distinct local languages and 121 international tongues. With so many spoken tongues in India, each individual state can choose its own language as the medium of official government business (s). However, 22 languages spoken widely across the states of India are recognised as scheduled languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

Scheduled Official Indian Languages

Article 343 of the Indian Constitution established Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, as the national language. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu were among the original 14 languages recognised in the Indian Constitution. A total of eight other languages—Sindhi, Konkani, Nepalese, Manipuri, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali—were granted this status throughout the course of time and a number of revisions. In total, 22 languages are listed in the Constitution's 8th schedule.

Official Languages of the states and Union Territories

According to the Indian Constitution, each state can choose its own official language. A language or languages may be designated as the state's official language(s) by statute. Of India's existing 29 states and 8 union territories (UTs), each has its own unique history and set of languages. In this article, we will be listing down the official languages of all the states and union territories.

Official languages of the states

Official Language of the Union Territories