EXPLAIN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY OF INDIA?

India is a linguistically very diverse country. The total number of languages spoken in the country as enumerated by the Census of 1961 stood at 1652. The major languages which have more than a million speakers each are 22. These languages are classified as official and are as follows:

1) Assamese

2) Bengali

3) Bodo

4) Dogri

5) Gujarati

6) Hindi

7) Kannad

8) Kashmiri

9) Konkani

10) Maithili

11) Malayalam

12) Manipuri

13) Marathi

14) Nepali

15) Oriya

16) Punjabi

17) Sanskrit

18) Santhali

19) Sindhi

20) Tamil

21) Telugu

22) Urdu

The importance of language in cultural identities of people can be gauged from the fact that most of the states created in India have been formed on the basis of languages. This has provided cultural security to speakers of these languages. Administration has also been made easier by these measures. The central government has shown flexibility on language policy by accommodating different languages for official work. This has strengthened the unity of the country by giving cultural expression to different communities.

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