how many major languages are there in india
Languages of India According to Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people.[13] Two contact languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian[14] and English.[15] Persian was the court language during the Mughal period in India. It reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation.[16] English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi, the most widely spoken language in a large region of India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of North and Central India.[17] However, there have been anti-Hindi agitations in South India, most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu.[18] There is also opposition in non-Hindi belt states towards imposition of Hindi in these areas.[19][20]
Hindi On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India. To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favor of Hindi, most notably Beohar Rajendra Simha along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, on the 50th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September 1949, the efforts came to fruition following adoption of Hindi as the official language.[8] It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.[9] However, it is not the national language of India because no language was given such a status in the Indian constitution.[10][11]