The concept of Language in the Indian polity is an institutional and constitutional scheme designed to manage the country's vast linguistic diversity and establish official communication channels. The framework is primarily laid out in Part XVII of the Constitution, specifically Articles 343 to 351, and the Eighth Schedule.
The system originated from the need to resolve the contentious issue of a national language after Independence, which was a problem of national unity versus regional identity. The Constitution, adopted in 1950, declared Hindi in the Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union under Article 343(1). It also provided for the continued use of English for official purposes for a period of 15 years, until January 25, 1965, under Article 343(2).
The mechanism works through a dual system of official languages for the Union and a list of recognized languages. Article 343(3) empowered Parliament to legislate for the continued use of English, which led to the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963 (Act No. 19 of 1963). This Act, which came into effect on January 26, 1965, made provisions for the continuation of English as an official language alongside Hindi for the Union's official purposes and for the transaction of business in Parliament. The Act also established the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language under Section 4 to review the progress of Hindi's use.
The Eighth Schedule lists the languages officially recognized by the Government of India, which currently number 22. The original Schedule in 1950 contained 14 languages. The purpose of this Schedule, as per Article 351, is to promote the spread of the Hindi language by drawing for its enrichment from the forms, style, and expressions used in the other languages specified in the Schedule. The list has been expanded multiple times, most recently by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003, which added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali, raising the total to 22. The spelling of Oriya was also changed to Odia by the 96th Amendment Act in 2011.
The concept connects to the Official Languages Act, 1963, and the constitutional provisions for states, where Article 345 allows a State Legislature to adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State as the official language(s) for that State. A recent change is the revised three-language framework introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Classes 9 and 10, effective from July 1, 2026, which mandates the study of three languages, with at least two being native Indian languages, aligning with the National Education Policy 2020.