Languages of India.

Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages are spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. 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. India has 780 languages, the world's second highest number of languages, after Papua New Guinea 839 languages.

Article 343 of the Indian constitution stated that the official language of the Union should become Hindi in Devanagari script. The Official Languages Act, 1963, allowed for the continuation of English in the Indian government indefinitely until legislation decides to change it. Despite the misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India. The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of the national language.

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu. Classical language status is given to languages which have a rich heritage and independent nature.

According to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people. English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi, the most commonly spoken language in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of North and Central India. However, there have been anti-Hindi agitations in South India, most notably in the state of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Punjab, and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about Hindi.

22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status, and official encouragement are; 01. Assamese 02. Bengali 03. Bodo Sino 04. Dogri 05. Gujarati 06. Hindi 07. Kannada 08. Kashmiri 09. Konkani 10. Maithili 11. Malayalam 12. Meitei Sino 13. Marathi 14. Nepali 15. Odia 16. Punjabi  17. Sanskrit 18. Santali 19. Sindhi 20. Tamil 21. Telugu 22. Urdu