Languages of India

Story hook

1949, Constituent Assembly. The most contentious debate is not on Article 17 (untouchability) or Article 14 (equality). It is on Article 343 — the official language of the Indian Union.

For three years, the Assembly has fought over this. Purushottam Das Tandon, Seth Govind Das, and the Hindi bloc want Hindi declared the national language with English phased out in 15 years. T. T. Krishnamachari, Frank Anthony, and the South Indian representatives warn that this is "linguistic apartheid against the south". Frank Anthony memorably calls it a "linguistic civil war waiting to happen".

The Munshi-Ayyangar formula is hammered out on the floor as a compromise: Hindi in Devanagari script becomes the official language (not "national language") of the Union; English continues for 15 years (until 1965), to be reviewed; and fourteen "languages of India" are recognised in the Eighth Schedule — which becomes the seed of India's linguistic federalism.

In 1965, when Hindi was supposed to become the sole official language, Tamil Nadu erupts in anti-Hindi agitation; two students self-immolate. PM Lal Bahadur Shastri agrees to retain English as an associate official language indefinitely. The Official Languages Act 1963 (amended 1967) codifies this.

The fight set the template for Indian linguistic policy: a constitutionally protected mother-tongue ecosystem, English as unifying lingua franca, Hindi as official lingua franca, and the Eighth Schedule as the political space where new languages can press for recognition. Today, 22 languages are scheduled. 6 are classical. The 23rd is queued (Tulu, Bhojpuri, and others have ongoing demands).

Why this matters for UPSC

Languages and scripts appear in Prelims almost every year — typically a script-family pairing, a Schedule listing, or a classical-language requirement. Mains GS-I uses it for the "linguistic diversity and national integration" stem. Interview boards probe it for the NEP 2020 three-language formula, the classical language demand, and the Bhojpuri / Tulu recognition debate.