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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South
Asia. It is the seventh-largest country
by area, The most populous country, and the most populous democracy
in the world. Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500
years. Languages spoken in the Republic
Of India belong to several Language Families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan Languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian Languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families
together are sometimes known as Indic Languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the
population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, and a few other minor language families
and Isolates. As per the People’s Linguistic
Survey Of India, India has the
second highest number of languages (780). According to the most recent
census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit, and rationalization
on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliations, the census recognizes 1369 rationalized
mother tongues and 1474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and
relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue category. Among, the 1369 rationalized
mother tongues which are spoken by 10,000 or more speakers, are further grouped
into appropriate set that resulted into total 121 languages. In these 121
languages, 22 are already part of the Eighth Schedule To
The Constitution Of India and
the other 99 are termed as “Total of other languages” which is one
short as of the other languages recognized in 2001 census.
