India Language

India a potpourri of different cultures, religions, and beliefs, is home to not just one or two languages but is a mixture of uncountable number of different lingual families. It is a rainbow, which has hues of all the cultures and languages to it. Whether it is Northern, Southern, Eastern or Western, all regions find representation in this mesmerizing country. It is a land of unity in diversity. As the people of India belong to different races of the world it is not surprising if they speak different languages. There is not a single language in this vast country, which is spoken and understood by the whole of the population. Depending upon whom you ask number of languages in India can vary from two to two thousand.
The language of Indian people changes at every mile. As the people are descendents of different races of the world variation in the languages spoken by them is a natural corollary to it. It is noteworthy that even in the same language accent of people often differs due to regional influence. There is one very interesting fact about the languages of India. Though India may boast of being a home to the languages of major lingual families of the world the irony is that this abode of languages does not have a national language of its own. According to the Constitution of India any language, which will be accepted by all the states of India as their official language will be given the status of national language.
In India no language is accepted or spoken by all the states unanimously. Even Hindi, a single language largely spoken by the people of India is unable to attain the status of national language as it is does not fulfill the condition of Constitution of India. Though it is spoken by large number of people but just 10 states of India have accepted it as their official language.

Ancestry :
As India is a vast landscape so it is not surprising if the number of languages also vary according to the geography. The people residing in India are not the natives of India they belong to five different races of world namely; Negroid, Europoid, Australoid, Mongloid and Caucasian. When these people came to India they brought their native languages along with them. Only Dravidian family is the native lingual family of India.
All other families have immigrated from other parts of the world. The languages of India belong to mainly four different sets of lingual families. The largest family of language is Indo European family, which branches to Indo Aryan family in India. It is the language spoken by almost 74% people of India. It mainly comprise of languages spoken in Northern and Western parts of India such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Oriya, Sindhi, Rajasthani, Assamese. Among the members of this family Hindi is the most prevalent and Sanskrit is the most ancient one.

The second largest group of family is the Dravidian family. It is spoken by almost 24% of masses in India. It reigns mainly in Southern states of India. Initially it was spoken in northern India as well but when Aryans came to India they pushed Dravidians to the Southern part of India as a result Indo Aryan group became prevalent in Northern India and Dravidian languages contracted to South India.

Dravidian family includes almost all the southern languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, Kota, Toda, Kotagu. Tamil is the oldest and purest of the Dravidian languages. Telugu is the widely spoken one and Malayalam is the youngest of all the languages of this family. Other prominent families of languages spoken in India are Sino-Tibetan, Austric and some other groups.

The languages of Sino-Tibetan family are spoken mainly in North-Eastern parts of India. Bodo and Naga languages spoken mainly by the people of Assam are the examples of this set of languages. The Austric set of languages mainly belongs to the Austric- Asiatic group of sub- families. The languages of this group are mainly spoken by the tribal people of Central, Eastern and North-Eastern people of India. Thus ancestry of Indian languages can be traced to following groups of families:
Indo Aryan
Dravidian
Sino- Tibetan
Austric
Others too.

The Mid Way :
Among all the Indo Aryan languages Sanskrit is the most ancient one. It is the language from which all the present languages of Indo Aryan family have originated. It is the language, which is supposed to be synonymous with the culture of India. The origin of many modern day languages including Hindi can be traced back to Sanskrit and its "apbhramsh"(diluted forms). Now Sanskrit has lost its old world charm, it is not a language of daily use anymore however it is still used as a language of prayers and preaching in Hindu religion. Though not prevalent in day-to-day use it is revived by the people of Mattur, a village in Karnataka as a language of daily use.
The Present :
Presently the official number of languages for India is 418 and out of this 11 have become extinct and there are 407 living languages of India, and 22 languages officially recognized by the Constitution of India. Out of these languages Hindi is spoken by majority of North Indians. When India got independence it was thought that Hindi will be made the National language of the nation but this thought did not materialize, as large population in Southern India did not understand Hindi. During British rule English was the official language and language of communication. So it was learned by elites of India too.
After independence English was made the associative official language to help in communication but it was thought that after a decade it will be withdrawn but it did not happen due to the protest by the southern states. Slowly English got embedded in Indian culture and is now one of the widely spoken languages of India. From kindergarten to the government offices it has became the medium of communication. No official work can be done without the help of English. Due to the effect of westernization and globalization it seems from outside that it is the native language of India but it is not the reality, as the mass population residing in villages of India do not understand it even today.
They speak and understand just the language of their region. Some of the official languages recognized by the Constitution of India are:
Sanskrit - The oldest documented language of the world. It is the ancestor of almost all of the indo Aryan languages.
Hindi - Spoken in almost all of Northern India, and is the official language of 10 states.
English - Associative official language and is mainly used for communication with states where Hindi is not the official language.
Gujarati - Language of Gujarat and Union Territories of Dadar and Nagar Haveli.
Punjabi - This descendent of Indo Aryan lingual family is the official language of Punjab.
Bengali- The state language of West Bengal spoken by almost 200 million people of west Bengal and Bangladesh.
Assamese - Official language of Assam.
Kashmiri - The language of Kashmir and spoken by 55% of Kashmiri population.
Urdu - The official language of Kashmir.
Oriya - This branch of indo Aryan family is the state language of state of Orissa.
Marathi - Language of Maharashtra.
Kannada - This member of Dravidian family is the official language of Karnataka.
Tamil - The oldest and purest form of Dravidian family is given the status of state language of Tamil Nadu.
Telugu - This is the largest spoken language of Dravidian group. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh.
Malayalam - The youngest member of Dravidian family. It is the official language of Kerala.
Sindhi - Language spoken by the people of North-West region including India and Pakistan.
Konkani - The state language of Goa.
Manipuri - The official language of Manipur. The language spoken in large parts of North-Eastern India.
Apart from these languages there are certain languages, which are spoken by large masses but are known as regional languages these include Bihari, Rajasthani, Haryanavi, Bhili, Gondi, Tulu and many more. Bihari language is spoken by almost 5 million people of India but it did not get the status of official language as its three forms: Angika, Bhojpuri and Magadhi were considered to be the dialects of Hindi. Rajasthani is also struggling to get the official status for similar reason.
There are some languages, which are given the status of minority languages, as they are not widely spoken. Mahl, language of Minicoy island of Lakshdweep, Puducherry, language of Pondicherry and Portuguese language spoken by the people of Goa, Daman and Diu, are some of the minority languages. Every language whether it is official or regional carries with it the legacy of the region it belong to. The languages are mirror to the spirit of people they are spoken by. So every language irrespective of its status holds special place in the hearts of its native people. The different languages of India does not represent the fissures in Indian tile instead they show the diversity and richness of culture of this land of sages. Hence every language is important in making India a rich land and helps in its growth.