National Language of India
•There is no national language of India as per the constitution, Hindi and English both are considered the official language of India. As per Article 343 of the Indian constitution the official language of the country shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. Initially, after the independence of India, 14 languages were included in the constitution of India.
•The official languages of colonial India were English Urdu and Hindi. The official language act 1963 provides languages that may be used for the official purpose of the Union of India for the transaction of business in parliament for Central and state acts and for a certain purpose in the Hindi high court.
National Languages of India-History
•As we mentioned above, there is no national language in India. In the present scenario, there are 22 languages spoken in India which are officially registered, these languages are Assamese, Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Kashmiri, Kannada, Konkani, Manipuri, Marathi, Malayalam, Odia, Nepali, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Bodo, Urdu, Sindhi, Santali, Marathi, and Dogri. State the power to adopt any language as their official language. At present, there are more than 30 languages that are demanded to be included in the eighth schedule of the constitution.
•In 1950, when the constitution of India came into effect, it allowed the Indian parliament to continue the use of English. After a few years, in 1964, the government faced resistance from the non-Hindi-speaking people of the country, due to the decision of making Hindi the official language. This was the reason, that both Hindi and English were made the official language of the country.
Government’s Role in implementing national language
•The government has always reiterated that Hindi is the national language of India. in several events, government bodies have declared Hindi as the national language. In 2017, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu addressed Hindi as the national language in his speech at a public event. People are still confused about the national language and official language. The national language is a representation of the history and heritage of the country, it shows the citizens of the country know and speak the language of the majority. An official language is used for the official purposes of the state and Central government. In a country, there can be more than one official language but there’s only one national language.
FAQs on National Languages of India
1. Does India have a national language?
Ans. India has no official language, but the constitution of India has adopted English and Hindi as the official language.
2. What is the national language of India as per the constitution of India?
Ans. As per the constitution of India, English and Hindi are the official languages, they are not recognized as the national language.
3. What is the official national language?
Ans. The official language of India is English and Hindi. There is no national language of India.
