Eighth Schedule to the Constitution

Eighth Schedule to the Constitution

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages. At the time the constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official Languages Commission, and that the language would be one of the bases that would be drawn upon to enrich Hindi, the official language of the Union. The list has since, however, acquired further significance. The Government of India is now under an obligation to take measures for the development of these languages, such that "they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge." In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service at a higher level is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium in which he or she answers the paper.

Via the 92nd Constitutional amendment 2003, 4 new languages – Bodo, Maithili, Dogri, and Santali – were added to the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

The following table lists the languages set out in the eighth schedule as of May 2007, together with the regions where they are used:

Language	Family	Speakers (2001, in millions)	State(s)
Assamese/Axomiya	Indo-Aryan, Eastern	13	Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
Bengali	Indo-Aryan, Eastern	83 in India	West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and also few regions of Assam
Bodo	Tibeto-Burman	1.4	Assam
Dogri	Indo-Aryan, Northwestern	2.3	Jammu and Kashmir
Gujarati	Indo-Aryan, Western	46	Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat
Standard Hindi	Indo-Aryan, Central	258-422[113]	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, the national capital territory of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand
Kannada	Dravidian	38	Karnataka
Kashmiri	Indo-Aryan, Dardic	5.5	Jammu and Kashmir
Konkani	Indo-Aryan, Southern	2.5 (7.6 per Ethnologue)	Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala
Maithili	Indo-Aryan, Eastern	12 (32 in India in 2000 per Ethnologue)	Bihar
Malayalam	Dravidian	33	Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Puducherry
Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)	Tibeto-Burman	1.5	Manipur
Marathi	Indo-Aryan, Southern	72	Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka
Nepali	Indo-Aryan, Northern	2.9 in India	Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam
Odia	Indo-Aryan, Eastern	33	Odisha
Punjabi	Indo-Aryan, Northwestern	29 in India	Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab
Sanskrit	Indo-Aryan	0.01	non-regional
Santhali	Munda	6.5	Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa)
Sindhi	Indo-Aryan, Northwestern	2.5 in India	non-regional
Tamil	Dravidian	61	Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry
Telugu	Dravidian	74	Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry
Urdu	Indo-Aryan, Central	52 in India	Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand