India, the land of diversity, has a rich cultural heritage with 22 official languages and thousands of dialects. In such a multilingual country, it’s essential to have a national language to unify the people. Hindi is considered the national language of India, but there is much debate about it.
22 Official Languages of India and Their States
| Sl No. | Languages | Official Recognition in state |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tamil | Tamil Nadu, Puducherry |
| 2 | Telugu | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry |
| 3 | Urdu | Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Jharkhand, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal |
| 4 | Odia | Official language of Orissa |
| 5 | Punjabi | Official language of Punjab and Chandigarh, 2nd official language of Delhi and Haryana |
| 6 | Sanskrit | Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand |
| 7 | Santali | Spoken by Santhal people mainly in the state of Jharkhand as well as in the states of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura, West Bengal |
| 8 | Sindhi | Gujarat and Maharashtra, especially Ulhasnagar |
| 9 | Kannada | Karnataka |
| 10 | Kashmiri | Jammu and Kashmir |
| 11 | Konkani | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala (The Konkan Coast) |
| 12 | Assamese | Assam, Arunachal Pradesh |
| 13 | Bengali | West Bengal, Tripura |
| 14 | Bodo | Assam |
| 15 | Dogri | Official language of Jammu and Kashmir |
| 16 | Gujarati | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Gujarat |
| 17 | Hindi | Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal |
| 18 | Maithili | Bihar, Jharkhand |
| 19 | Malayalam | Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry |
| 20 | Manipuri | Manipur |
| 21 | Marathi | Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu |
| 22 | Nepali | Sikkim and West Bengal |
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