Question

Explain the linguistic diversity of India.

Answer 1

In free India the distribution pattern of major language groups was considered as a satisfactory basis for the formation of States. This has given a new political meaning to the geographical pattern of the linguistic distribution in the country. The most comprehensive data on languages was collected at the time of 1961 census of India. According to these census figures there were 187 languages spoken by different sections of our society.Out of these, as many as 94 languages are spoken by less than 10,000 persons each and 23 languages together account for 77 percent of the total population of the country. According to some of the scholars, the total number of language and dialect in a country is about 700 (nearly 175 languages and 550 dialects). Out of these numerous languages, 22 are recognised as national languages of the country as they are included in the eight schedule of the constitution.These languages are: Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Kannada, Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Malayaiam, Marathi, Oriya, Urdu, Konkani, Sindhi, Tamil, Telgu, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi and Gujarati, Maithili, Bodo, Dogri, Santhali. Hindi is the official language of India and it is understood by the largest number of people in the country. The languages of India can be conveniently grouped into four categories.(1) Indo-European Family (Arya)(2) Dravidian Family (Dravida)(3) Austric Family (Nishada)(4) Sino-Tibetan Family (Kirata)It is interesting to note that the strength of the four families is very uneven: Aryan languages (73. %), Dravidian languages (20%), Austric languages (1.38%), and the Sino-Tibetan languages (0.85%).