Question

Constitution of India provides that Hindi shall be the _____
A. National language of India
B. Language of communication
C. Official language of the Union of India
D. Language of communication between the Union Government and the State Government

Answer 1

Hint:
> Hindi, or more specifically Modern Standard Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language conversed mainly in India.
> It is the dominating mode of speech for about one third of India's 1.09 billion people.

Complete answer:
In The Constitution of India, it is stated that Hindi shall be the Official Language of the Union of India. The Constitution declared so in 1950. In Article 343(1) of the Constitution, it is specified that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the Official Language of the Union of India. The numbers used in official documents shall be the international form of Indian numerals. Even though Hindi is the Official Language of India, the usage of English language is also permitted in case of official matters i.e. proceedings of the parliament, conveying of messages between Central and State Governments etc.

As India is an extremely vast country with numerous languages, there was a requirement of an official language. There are 22 languages recognized as regional languages by the Indian Constitution(excluding English). In India, all the states have the freedom to specify and use their own official languages. Hindi and English are the only languages that can be used by the states in communication with the Central Government.

For e.g.
If two states have to communicate with each other and they use completely different languages but have Hindi as their common language, then the official language for their communication is required to be Hindi.
But if two states communicating with each other have totally different official languages and they do not even have Hindi as a commonality, then they are required to use English as the official language.

When the Constitution was written, it was clearly mentioned that the “English language” would be used only for the next 15 years after India’s Independence and then India would switch to “Hindi” exclusively for all official purposes. But in 1963, the Official Languages Act was enacted by the Parliament, stating that the areas in India which have no Hindi background will not be able to communicate with the rest of the Union. Thus, authorising the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes even after 15 years of Independence.

Therefore, the correct answer is C

Note:
It is often mistaken by people that the National Language of the country is Hindi. But it is now clear that the Constitution has stated that Hindi is the Official Language of the country and not the National Language.

In India, there is no national language. This is because India has 23 official languages. In addition to that, India has six Classical Languages which include Sanskrit, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Odia.

There are around 150 countries around the world that have a National Language stated in their Constitution.