Official languages of India

Two different lists live in this topic. The official language of the Union is Hindi in the Devanagari script, with English continuing as an associate official language under the Official Languages Act, 1963 — the usual statute classrooms cite. That pair is for Union business. It is not “India has only two languages”.

The Eighth Schedule lists the scheduled languages. There are 22. Do not invent a 23rd. The original Constitution named 14; later amendments added Sindhi, then Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, then Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali (92nd Amendment, 2003, is the last big classroom cluster).

Classical-language status is a separate honour (Tamil was first). The official list has been expanded beyond the older six; check the latest government notification rather than a coaching chart if a paper asks “how many classical languages now”. Mother-tongue data belong to Census 2011, not to a fake 2026 language census.

Key points

1. Union official language: Hindi, Devanagari script (Part XVII, Article 343 in the usual pointer).
2. Associate official language: English (Official Languages Act 1963 — standard citation).
3. Eighth Schedule: 22 scheduled languages. There is no 23rd on this desk.
4. The 22 (locked list): Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.
5. Original 14 + later additions. 92nd Amendment (2003): Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali.
6. States may adopt their own official language(s) for state work — that does not delete Hindi/English at the Centre.
7. We do not invent a 2026 law that “English has been dropped” or “a 23rd language was added last week”.
8. Classical languages: Tamil first (2004 in the usual year). Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia followed in the older set. Later additions exist — verify the notification; do not guess a 2026 extra name.
9. Jana Gana Mana is sung in a highly Sanskritised Bengali register in origin stories; it is the anthem, not an Eighth Schedule amendment.
10. Census 2011 tabulated mother tongues; we do not invent 2026 speaker ranks. Hindi is the largest mother-tongue group in that census in the usual teaching — still 2011.
11. Urdu is scheduled; it is not “foreign”. Sanskrit is scheduled; it is not a Union official language in the Article 343 sense.
12. English is widely used in the Supreme Court and in many High Courts — a working fact, not a replacement of Article 343.
13. Northeast and southern states’ official languages sit on state GK pages.
14. 28 states do not mean 28 Union official languages.
15. This page is not a 2026 political slogan about any one language.
16. Related: Constitution (Eighth Schedule, Part XVII), literacy, states.
17. If asked “how many scheduled languages”, write 22.
18. If asked “official language of the Union”, write Hindi (Devanagari) + English associate.
19. Do not confuse script (Devanagari) with language (Hindi). Marathi also uses Devanagari; that does not merge the two scheduled names.
20. Sindhi was the first added after the original 14 in the usual story (21st Amendment, 1967).
21. We do not list a 2026 “threatened language” UN day as a new scheduled language.
22. IST and the rupee have nothing to do with the Schedule except that forms are printed in scheduled languages as policy allows.
23. President and PM names do not change the Schedule.
24. For a current classical-language count, open the official gazette, not a 2015 PDF only.

Official languages of India — facts (2026)

Exam tip: Two numbers: 2 (Hindi + English at the Union) and 22 (Eighth Schedule). Mixing them is the trap.

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