Table of Contents
MCQ
• Which of the following are the official languages of Mizoram?
1. Mizo
2. English
3. Hindi
A. Only 1 and 2
B. Only 1 and 3
C. All of them
D. Only 1
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
The number of people with Hindi as their mother tongue has increased and their percentage is up from 41.03 to 43.63 in 2001, according to data on language released as part of Census 2011.
Hindi was the fastest growing language in India at 25.19 percent, adding close to a 100 million
speakers between 2001-2011.
OTHER LANGUAGES THAT ARE GROWING
Kashmiri (22.97 percent), Gujarati (20.4 percent), Manipuri (20.07 percent), and Bengali (16.63
percent) are the second, third, fourth and fifth fastest growing languages, respectively, according to new census data.
MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGES IN THE COUNTRY
Hindi (520 million speakers) and Bengali (97 million speakers) remain the most-spoken and the
second-most-spoken languages across the country. Marathi with 83 million speakers displaced Telugu (81 million) to become the third most common mother tongue after Hindi and Bengali.
NOTES
• Gujarati, which was ranked seventh in 2001 with 46 million speakers, moved ahead of Urdu to occupy the sixth spot with 55 million speakers in 2011.
• Urdu dropped from the sixth place in 2001 (51 million speakers) to the seventh place in 2011 with 50 million people mentioning it as their mother tongue.
• Kannada was constant at eighth place with the number of speakers increasing from 37 to 43 million.
ENGLISH AS MOTHER TONGUE
•There are now 260,000 people who deem English as their mother tongue; up from 226,000 in 2001, an increase of 14.67 percent.
•The most number of English speakers are from Maharashtra (104,000) followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
NOTES
Two scheduled languages have witnessed a drop in the number of people referring to
them as their mother tongues: Urdu declined by 1.58 percent and Konkani by 9.54 percent.
• At present, as per Ministry of Home Affairs, there are demands for inclusion of 41
more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. These are:
KONKANI LANGUAGE
• It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution and the official language of the Indian state of Goa.
The Central government is responsible for the promotion of the scheduled languages.
UNSCHEDULED LANGUAGES
• Of the 99 unscheduled languages, Bhili/Bhilodi continue to have the most
speakers (104 million marked it as their mother tongue), up from 95 million
in 2001.
• Gondi retained its second position with 29 million speakers, up from 27
million in 2001.
• Bhili/Bhilodi is predominantly spoken by the Bhil people who are native to
Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
• Gondi is spoken by the Gonds who primarily inhabit Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Telangana,
Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka.
MCQ
• Which of the following are the official languages of Mizoram?
1. Mizo
2. English
3. Hindi
A. Only 1 and 2
B. Only 1 and 3
C. All of them (Right answer)
D. Only 1
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