Most Spoken Languages In India

India is a diverse country; the diversity of this country lies in the various ethnic groups, religions practised and the language spoken by the citizens of the nations. There are approximately 121 languages that are spoken in the country. There are more than 19,500 languages or dialects that are spoken as the mother tongue. The numbers are published according to the census conducted in the year 2018 by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.  Among all these languages, Hindi is the most spoken language in India.

The constitution of India has mentioned 22 languages as the scheduled language, and official language of the country, almost 96.71 per cent of the total population have one of the scheduled languages as their mother tongue. Hence these 22 languages are considered the major languages in India. The 3.29 per cent of the remaining population is documented to use languages other than the scheduled languages in the Indian Constitution.

The official or scheduled languages are mentioned in the constitution of India, these are specifically documented in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The list of the 22 official languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule is mentioned below.

• Assamese, 

• Bengali,

• Gujarati,

• Hindi, 

• Kannada,

• Kashmiri, 

• Konkani,

• Malayalam,

• Manipuri, 

• Marathi, 

• Nepali, 

• Oriya, 

• Punjabi,

• Sanskrit, 

• Sindhi,

• Tamil, 

• Telugu, 

• Urdu, 

• Bodo, 

• Santhali, 

• Maithili 

•  Dogri

An important point to note while discussing the most spoken language in India is that some of the languages were given the designation as the official language; later, an example of such a language is Sindhi. It was designated as an official language in 1967. Following Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in the Eighth Schedule in 1992. Later in 2004, four more languages were included in the list; they were as follows, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali.

Since we now have a basic understanding of the diverse languages and dialects spoken in the country and have discussed the major languages in India mentioned in the Indian Constitution, we can categorize different languages as the most spoken language in India based on the number of active speakers of the language and the number of people that use the language as their mother tongue. The article also helps in generating an understanding of the most popular language in India.

List Of Top 10 Languages In India

 The list contains the most popular language in India based on the number of people that spoke the language and the number of people that referred to the given language as their mother tongue. The most spoken language in India is Hindi, as most of the citizens of the country speak the language. The list of the top 10 most spoken languages in India is mentioned below.

Hindi 

Hindi is considered the most spoken language in India because of the large number of speakers; there are about 52.83 crore speakers. According to the latest census report of 2011, the number of Hindi speakers have increased over the years when compared to the census report of 2001. According to the census report of 2011, the researchers have calculated that the number of Hindi speakers has increased about 2 per cent.  In 2011 only 41. 03 per cent of the total population spoke Hindi; the number increased to 43.63 per cent in the census report of 2011.  The language is majorly spoken by the citizens of the northern states of the nation. Some examples of the states that are widely Hindi spoken include the following: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

An interesting fact about the language is that it is considered the fourth position in the list of most spoken languages of the world. The most spoken language in the world is Mandarin, which is followed by languages like Spanish and English.

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language that is written in the Devanagari script. The language is considered a descendant of the Sanskrit language. Hindi is known to have an influence on languages like  Dravidian, Arabic, Portuguese, English, Persian, and Turkey. The dialects that are spoken in the Hindi language include the following: Awadi, Braj, and khadi bhasha.

Bengali/ Bangla 

Bengali is in the top 5 languages spoken in India. Bangla or Bengali is the second most spoken language in India. The total number of people that speak Bangla across the country is approximately 9.72 crore. The number is published according to the census report published by the Government of India. The number of Bengali speakers constitute about 8.03 per cent of the total population, which includes citizens that are active speakers and refer to Bangla as their mother tongue.

Bengali is defined as an Indian-Aryan language. This language is mostly spoken in south-Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. An interesting fact about the language is that it is considered the official language of the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. In India, the language is predominantly spoken in the state of West Bengal, other states where Bangla has been considered a major language are as follows, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Jharkhand, Assam and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands in the northeast of India.

As Bengali is considered to have Indo-Aryan roots, it is also considered to be the secular language of the old Indo-Aryans. The language is known to be influenced by languages like Persian and Arabic. Apart from Bangladesh, the language is spoken in other countries like the Middle East, America, Australia, Japan, UK, and Canada. 

Marathi

Marathi is also on the list of the top 5 languages spoken in India, it is considered as the third most used language in India. Marathi also has an Indo-Aryan origin. The language is spoken by nearly 8.30 crore citizens of the nation. The population of Marathi speakers constitute up to 6.86 per cent of the total population.

It is the official language of states like Maharashtra and Goa. There are 42 different dialects of the language that are spoken in this country.

Telugu

Telugu is also on the list of the top 5 languages spoken in India. It is the fourth most used language of India. There are approximately 8.11 crore people who speak the language. The language is mainly spoken in the southern states of India. Some of the states where Telugu is the major language used include the following, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Yanam.

The language is also spoken in many foreign countries example of such countries include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. The language is considered a Dravidian language. There are many different dialects in which the language is spoken. Some of the dialects that use Telugu include Domara, Salavari, Nellore, Comtao Beraad, Wadaga, and Kamathi. 

Tamil

Tamil is also present in the top 5 languages spoken in India; Tamil comes in the fifth position in the list of top 5 most spoken languages. The number of people who use Tamil is approximately  6.90 crores. Tamil is considered a Dravidian language. An interesting fact about the language is that it is an official language mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and is also designated as the national language of countries like Singapore and Sri Lanka. The language is predominantly spoken in southern states like Tamil Nadu. Another important point to notice is that their language is among the oldest languages of the world, it is more than 2000 years old. 

Gujarati 

Gujarati is the sixth most widely spoken language in India. The active speakers of the language are approximately 5.54 crore citizens of the nation. It is the official language of the state of Gujarat. The language is known to have Indo-Aryan origins, the language is also said to have evolved from Sanskrit.

Urdu

Urdu is the sixth major language among the major languages in India. There are about 5.07 crore citizens that speak Urdu. Although Urdu is famously known as the official language of Pakistan, it is designated as an official language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution. The states that use Urdu as their official language include the following: West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, and Jharkhand.

Kannada

It is also among the top languages in India. It is widely used in the southern states of the country. The language is predominantly used in the state of Karnataka. There are about 4.37 crore citizens that speak the language. The language has a Dravidian origin; it is also considered among the oldest languages of the world. There are 20 different dialects in which Kannada is spoken. Apart from India, the language is spoken in western countries like the United States of America and Canada.

Odia

Odia is ranked ninth among the top languages in India. There are 3.75 crore speakers of the language. Odia is the official language of Odisha.

Malayalam 

Malayalam is the tenth language ranked in the list of top 10 languages in India. It is also a Dravidian language. There are 3.48 crore citizens who speak Malayalam. The language is majorly spoken in the states like Kerala, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep.

In conclusion, India has a huge diversity of languages. There are 121 languages that are spoken in the country out of which 22 languages are considered as the official language of the country. These languages are mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution, Hindi is among the top 10 languages spoken in India.