Question

How many languages are recognized as scheduled languages?
a. 21
b. 22
c. 23
d. 24

Answer 1

Hint:
Languages that are spoken in India belong to several language groups. The languages which are specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution are recognized as the scheduled languages. These languages are granted recognition, status, and official encouragement.


Complete solution:
 India is a diverse country, not only in culture and geographically but also by languages, After Nigeria (524 languages), Indonesia (710 languages), and Papua New Guinea (840 languages), India has the fourth-largest number of languages in the world (427 languages).
India comprises 122 major languages and 1599 minor languages, as per the Census of India of 2001. Statistics from other reports, however, differ, largely because of inconsistencies in the meaning of "language" and "dialect" words. 30 languages spoken by more than a million fluent speakers and 122 spoken by more than 10,000 people were recorded by the 2001 Census. Out of all the 122 major languages and 1599 minor languages, only 22 languages are recognized as scheduled languages and specified in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution, as of 1st December 2007.
According to Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, the official language of the Union is Hindi in the Devanagari script, rather than English as it appears. A constitutional amendment, The Official Languages Act, 1963, subsequently permitted the persistence of English in the Indian government alongside Hindi effectively unless law wished to alter it.
Hence, the correct answer is option B.

Note:
The country recognized 14 authorized regional languages until the Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1967. The addition of Sindhi, Konkani, Meitei, and Nepali was specified in the Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18.