Language is one of the principal sources of a person’s cultural identity. The Indian constitution acknowledges, for now, 18 official Indian languages. But, almost each of these 18 languages of India, further include different dialects or versions of that language changes from locality to locality and area to area. Besides these 18 languages of India, there are other languages which are acknowledged by the central government, but not as official languages. There are several other languages in India which are spoken locally but they are not accredited by the central government. There are some states of India which are created on the basis of languages and are recognized by the constitution of India.

Some of the states whose boundaries are founded on the basis of languages are Kerala which is mainly dominated by the Malayalam speakers. The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is mostly dominated by the Tamil speakers. Karnataka is by those people who speak Kanadda. The state of Andhra Pradesh came into existence for Telugu speakers. The western state of Maharashtra is meant for Marathi people. Orissa which is located in the eastern part of India mainly dominated by those people who speak the Oriya language. The Indian state of West Bengal is for Bengali speakers. Gujarat is dominated by the Gujarati speakers. Punjab is dominated by Punjabi speakers. Assam is dominated Assami speakers. However, most of states’ boundaries of India are demarcated on the lines of languages but still there are other states of India which were not formed on the basis of language boundaries and there are numerous other language speaker who don’t have their own state.

Some of the languages like Dogri, Ladacki and Kashmiri, languages of Sikkim, Nepali, Manipuri etc. which are spoken widely in those parts of India but are not recognized as the National Language of India. Besides these, there are numerous languages of India which are spoken by the tribes of India. While the travelers are making the tribal tourism in India, they will come differentiate the tribal languages of India. Konkani language is another famous language of India named after its region of the Konkan coast.

Despite the numerous languages and dialects in India, most of the languages recognized as official have evolved a standard of speaking which has become the accepted style of speaking for that particular language. The best example is the national language of Hindi which is sometimes, completely different from some of its dialects used different parts of India.

As multi-lingual country, the different states of India used different official languages according to their language convention and utility, some of which are not even recognized by the central government. There are some states which have more than one official language. For example, the East Indian state of Bihar has two official languages where Hindi is the first official language of the state and Urdu is declared as the second official language.


List of Languages Recognized by the Indian Constitution