Question

How many languages are there under article 8 of Indian Constitution?
A) 22
B) 20
C) 25
D) 15

Answer 1

Hint: The Indo-Aryan languages, spoken by 78.05 percent of Indians, and the Dravidian languages, spoken by 19.64 percent of Indians, are the two largest language families spoken in India.
The Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates are spoken by the remaining 2.31 percent of the population.

Complete answer:
As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution, the article 8 includes the following 22 languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Meitei
Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu,Urdu.

Of these languages, 14 were included in the Constitution initially. Then, Sindhi was added in the year 1967 by 21st constitutional amendment act; Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali languages were added in 1992 by 71st Constitutional Amendment Act; and In 2003 Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali was added by 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act.

Even though dialects and languages develop in a dynamic manner, influenced by socio - political developments, it is difficult to establish any criterion for languages, whether to distinguish them from dialects or to include them in the Indian Constitution's Eighth Schedule. As a result, both the Pahwa (1996) and Sitakant Mohapatra (2003) Committees' attempts to establish such fixed criteria have failed.

Thus, option (A) 22 is the correct answer.

Note: The official languages are included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. Inclusion on this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official Languages Commission at the time of the Constitution’s enactment, and that it would be one of the bases used to enrich Hindi and English, the Union’s official languages.