The Languages of
India
Four Language Branches,
one area of the world
Southern Asia’s Languages
All these languages originated from the great languages of the past, with most of
them belonging to several major linguistic families, like Indo-Aryan (spoken by 70%
of Indians), Dravidian languages, spoken by 22% of the Indians), Austro-Asiatic
languages and Tibeto-Burman linguistic languagse.
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian,
Indo-Aryan, . . .
• Indo-European family (1.6 billion speakers)
• Indo-Iranian group (600 million speakers)
• Indic / Indo-Aryan branch (540 million
speakers)
Hindi:
the Official Language of India
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Hindi.
The accent and dialects will be different
between regions, but almost every Indian has a
working knowledge of Hindi
• हिन्दी, हििंदी It is written in a Devanagiri script.
• Hindi ranks 4th in the world for most speakers.
• Official language in India and Fiji.
• Spoken in India and Pakistan.
How to say:
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Hello
Good-bye
Please
Thank you
Namastey! नमस्ते
Alvida! अलविदा।
kr̥payā कृपया
Shukriyaa शुक्रीया
English Words Derived from Hindi
• Avatar from avatar अितार ‫اوتار‬meaning
"incarnation."
• Bandanna from Bandhna,(बािंधना) to tie a scarf
around the head.
• Cheetah from cītā, चीता, meaning "variegated body."
• Guru from Guru, A teacher, instructor, intellectual or
spiritual guide or leader, any person who counsels or
advises; mentor. e.g. "The elder senator was her
political guru."
• Karma from Karma , meaning acts or deeds.
• Khaki from khākī "of dust colour, dusty, grey", cf.
Hindi खाकी
Bengali
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan,
Eastern Group, Bengali-Assamese
• বাাংলা Bangla Written in the Bengali Script.
• Ranks 5 or 6th in the world for most speakers.
• An official language of West Bengal.
• Spoken by nearly 200 million people in West
Bengal and in Bangladesh; also spoken in
India, UK, USA, Singapore, United Arab
Emirates, Australia, Myanmar.
Punjabi
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Punjabi
• ਪੰ ਜਾਬੀ, ,‫پنجابی‬पिंजाबी, Pañjābī Written in Gurmukhi in Punjab
(India) and Sikh diaspora Shahmukhi in Punjab (Pakistan)
Devanagari (mainly used by Hindus)
• Ranks 12th in the world for speakers.
• The official language of the State of Punjab. It was created by
the Sikh Guru, Angad.
• Spoken in India and Pakistan. Punjabi is also spoken as a
minority language in several other countries where Punjabis
have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States,
Australia, the United Kingdom (where it is the second most
commonly used language) and Canada, where in recent times
Punjabi has grown fast and has now become the fourth most
spoken language.
Urdu
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan,
Central Zone, Western Hindi, Khariboli, Urdu
• ‫ردو‬
ُ ُ ‫ ا‬Written in Nastaʿlīq script
• Ranked 9–21 (native speakers), in a near tie with
Italian and Turkish. Contains many Persian
Language words.
• Official language in Pakistan and India.
• Spoken in Pakistan, India. Also in various
countries due to immigration, USA, UK,
Germany, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia,
Fiji, Afghanistan and Burma.
Gujarati
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan,
Western Indo-Aryan, Gujarati
ુ રાતી Gujǎrātī Written in Gujarati script.
• ગજ
• Gujarati is ranked 25th in the world for speakers.
• It is the official language in the Gujarat State of
India. It is also the language that spread most in
India and in the world.
• It is spoken in India, Pakistan, South Africa,
Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, U.S., UK, Australia,
New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Portugal.
Oriya
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan,
Eastern Group, Oriya group, Oriya
• ଓଡ଼ିଆ oṛiā Written in the Oriya script
• Ranked 31st in the world for number of
speakers
• An official language of India
• Spoken in the Orissa area of India
Maithili
• Indo-european, Indo-Iranian, Eastern Group,
Bihari, Matihili
• मैथिली maithilī Written in Devanagari,
Kaithi, Mithilakshar
• Ranked 40th in the world for number of
speakers
• Officially the language of Bihar State of India
• Spoken in India and Nepal
Sindhi
• Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Northwestern
Zone, Sindhi
• ‫ سنڌ‬सिन्धी ,Sindhī Written in Arabic
• Ranked 47th in the world for language
speakers
• Officially spoken in Pakistan, India.
• Also spoken in Hong Kong, Oman,
Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA,
Afghanistan
Nepali
• Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan,
Pahari, Eastern Pahari, Nepali
• नेपाली Written in the Devanagari script.
• Ranked 52nd in the world of language
speakers.
• Officially a language in Nepal.
• Spoken in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Tibet,
Myanmar.
Dravidian Languages
Telugu
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Dravidian, South-Central Telugu
తెలుగు Written in the Telugu script.
Ranked 14th in the world for most speakers.
Officially spoken in India.
Spoken also in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Puducherry, Andaman
and Nicobar Islands.
• It is numerically the biggest linguistic unit in
India.
Tamil
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Dravidian, Tamil-Kannada
தமிழ் tamiḻ Written in the Tamil script.
Ranked 19th in the world for language speakers.
Officially the language of India. Tamil Nadu,
Puducherry, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
• Also spoken in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, where
it has official status; with significant minorities in
Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, and Réunion, and
emigrant communities around the world.
• Tamil literature goes back to Centuries before the
Christian era.
Malayalam
• Dravidian, Southern, Tamil-Kannada, Tamil-Kodagu, TamilMalayalam, Malayalam
• മലയാളം malayāḷam Written in Malayalam script,
historically written in Vattezhuthu script, Kolezhuthu
script , Malayanma script, used in Thiruvananthapuram,
Karzoni script. Also Arabic script, an Arabi Malayalam.
• Ranked 32nd in the world for language speakers.
• Officially spoken in India.
• Spoken specifically in Kerala, Lakshadweep, Karnataka,
Mahé, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Persian Gulf.
• It is the youngest of all developed languages in the
Dravidian language family.
Kannada
• Dravidian, Southern, Tamil-Kannada Kannada
• ಕನ್ನಡ kannaḍa Written in Kannada script.
• Ranked 33rd in the world of language
speakers.
• Officially a language in India: Karnataka.
• Spoken in Karnataka, India, with significant
communities in USA, Australia, Singapore,
UK, United Arab Emirates.
Austro-Asiatic Language Branch
Sino-Tibetan
India’s History
The History of India begins with the birth of the Indus
Valley Civilization in such sites as Mohenjo-Daro,
Harappa, and Lothal, and the coming of the Aryans.
These two phases are usually described as the preVedic and Vedic periods. It is in the Vedic period that
Hinduism first arose: this is the time to which the
Vedas are dated.
In the fifth century, large parts of India were united under
Ashoka. He also converted to Buddhism, and it is in his
reign that Buddhism spread to o ther parts of Asia. It is in
the reign of the Mauryas that Hinduism took the shape
that fundamentally informs the religion down to the
present day. Successor states were more fragmented.
Islam first came to India in the eighth century, and by the 11th
century had firmly established itself in India as a political
force; the North Indian dynasties of the Lodhis, Tughlaqs, and
numerous others, whose remains are visible in Delhi and
scattered elsewhere around North India, were finally
succeeded by the Mughal empire, under which India once
again achieved a large measure of political unity.
The European presence in India dates to the seventeenth
century, and it is in the latter part of this century that the
Mughal empire began to disintegrate, paving the way for
regional states. In the contest for supremacy, the English
emerged 'victors', their rule marked by the conquests at the
battlefields of Plassey and Buxar.
The Rebellion of 1857-58,
which sought to restore
Indian supremacy, was
crushed; and with the
subsequent crowning of
Victoria as Empress of
India, the incorporation
of India into the empire
was complete. Successive
campaigns had the effect
of driving the British out
of India in 1947.
The six decades between the end of the "mutinous" war of
1857 - 59 and the conclusion of First World War saw both
the peak of British imperial power in India and the birth of
nationalist agitation against it. With increasing intrusion of
aliens in their lives, a group of middle class Indians formed
the Indian National Congress (1885) - a society of English
educated affluent professionals - to seek reforms from the
British.
The anti-colonial struggle became truly a mass
movement with the arrival of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948) in 1915 who
had suffered great humiliation in South Africa
due to the policy of racial discrimination and
later committed to rid his motherland of the
ills of foreign rule.
Successive campaigns
had the effect of driving
the British out of India in
1947, but with
independence for India
came the independence
for the country of
Pakistan, too.
There is hardly anything that India cannot indigenously
build. Ships, planes, cars, vehicles of all kinds and now
missiles are all built in India with Indian labor and expertise.
A younger generation will take all these for granted but it is
only an older generation that has seen India cower under
western dominance that can appreciate the great changes
that have come over Indian society.
On the strength of what India has achieved in the last half
a century one can confidentially assert that within the next
quarter century India will be a force to reckon with and will
be counted among the first three or four most powerful
nations in the world. That is not only a dream and a hope but
something that will be seen as a reality. Then indeed can any
Indian say with truth and pride:
'Mera Bharat mahan‘ (My India is Great).
Religion: a Mainstay of Culture
India is the birth place of Dharmic religions such as Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Today, Hinduism and Buddhism are
the world's third- and fourth-largest religions respectively, with
around 1.4 billion followers altogether.
India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world,
with some of the most deeply religious societies and cultures.
Religion still plays a central and definitive role in the life of most of its
people.
The religion of more than 80.4% of the people is Hinduism. Islam is
practiced by around 13.4% of all Indians. Sikhism, Jainism and
especially Buddhism are influential not only in India but across the
world. Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith are
also influential but their numbers are smaller. Despite the strong role
of religion in Indian life, atheism and agnostics also have visible
influence along with a self-ascribed tolerance to other people.
India’s Society
Family plays a big role in the
Indian culture. India for ages
has had a prevailing tradition of
the joint family system. It’s a
system under which even
extended members of a family
like one’s parents, children, the
children’s spouses and their
offspring, etc. live together. The
elder-most, usually the male
member is the head in the joint
Indian family system who
makes all important decisions
and rules, whereas other family
members abide by it.
The varied and rich wildlife of India
has had a profound impact on the
region's popular culture. Common name
for wilderness in India is Jungle which
was adopted by the British colonialists to
the English language. The word has been
also made famous in The Jungle Book by
Rudyard Kipling. India's wildlife has been
the subject of numerous other tales and
fables such as the Panchatantra and the
Jataka tales.
In Hinduism, the cow is regarded as a
symbol of ahimsa (non-violence), mother
goddess and bringer of good fortune and
wealth. For this reason, cows are
revered in Hindu culture and feeding a
cow is seen as an act of worship.
Namaste, Namaskar or Namaskara is a common spoken greeting
or salutation in the Indian subcontinent. Namaskar is considered a
slightly more formal version than namaste but both express deep
respect. It is commonly used in India and Nepal by Hindus, Jains,
and Buddhists, and many continue to use this outside the Indian
subcontinent. In Indian and Nepali culture, the word is spoken at
the beginning of written or verbal communication. However, the
same hands folded gesture is made usually wordlessly upon
departure. In yoga, namaste is said to mean "The light in me honors
the light in you," as spoken by both the yoga instructor and yoga
students.
Taken literally, it means "I bow to you". The word is derived from
Sanskrit: to bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, and respect
and: "to you".
When spoken to another person, it is commonly accompanied by
a slight bow made with hands pressed together, palms touching and
fingers pointed upwards, in front of the chest.
Festivals
India, being a multi-cultural and multi-religious society, celebrates holidays
and festivals of various religions. The three national holidays in India, the
Independence Day, the Republic Day and the Gandhi Jayanti, are celebrated
with zeal and enthusiasm across India. In addition, many states and regions
have local festivals depending on prevalent religious and linguistic
demographics. Popular religious festivals include the Hindu festivals of
Navratri Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga puja, Holi, Rakshabandhan and
Dussehra. Several harvest festivals, such as Sankranthi, Pongal and Onam,
are also fairly popular. Certain festivals in India are celebrated by multiple
religions. Notable examples include Diwali which celebrated by Hindus,
Sikhs and Jains and Buddh Purnima which is celebrated by Buddhists and
Hindus. Islamic festivals, such Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Ramadan, are
celebrated by Muslims across India. Adding colors to the culture of India,
the Dree Festival is one of the tribal festivals of India celebrated by the
Apatanis of the Ziro valley of Arunachal Pradesh, which is the easternmost
state of this country.
Food, Glorious Food!
Food is an important part of
Indian culture, playing a role in
everyday life as well as in
festivals. Indian cuisine varies
from region to region,
reflecting the varied
demographics of the ethnically
diverse subcontinent.
Generally, Indian cuisine can be
split into five categories:
North, South, East, West Indian
and North-eastern India.
Historically, Indian spices and herbs were
one of the most sought after trade
commodities. The spice trade between
India and Europe led to the rise and
dominance of Arab traders to such an
extent that European explorers, such as
Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus,
set out to find new trade routes with India
leading to the Age of Discovery. The
popularity of curry, which originated in
India, across Asia has often led to the dish
being labeled as the "pan-Asian" dish.
Clothing
Delhi is considered to be India's fashion capital,
housing the annual Fashion weeks. In some village
parts of India, traditional clothing mostly will be worn.
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Pune are
all places for people who like to shop. In southern
India the men wear long, white sheets of cloth called
dhoti in English . Over the dhoti, men wear shirts, tshirts, or anything else. Women wear a sari, a long
sheet of colorful cloth with patterns. This is draped
over a simple or fancy blouse. This is worn by young
ladies and woman. Little girls wear a pavada. A
pavada is a long skirt worn under a blouse. Both are
often gaily patterned. Bindi – the forehead dot - is part
of the women's make-up. Traditionally, the red bindi
(or sindhur) was worn only by the married Hindu
women, but now it has become a part of women's
fashion. Indo-western clothing is the fusion of
Western and Subcontinental fashion.
Literature
Rabindranath Tagore,
Asia's first Nobel laureate
Illustration of the Battle of Kurukshetra. With more than In contemporary Indian literature,
74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1.8 million there are two major literary awards;
words in total, theMahābhārata is one of the longest epic these are the Sahitya Akademi
Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award.
poems in the world.
Seven Jnanpith awards each have been
awarded in Kannada, six in Hindi, five
in Bengali, four in Malayalam, three
each in and Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu
and Oriya.
Performing Arts
Indian dance, too,
has diverse folk and
classical forms.
Kalari is considered
one of the world's
oldest martial art.
The music of India
includes multiple
varieties of religious,
folk, popular, pop, and
classical music. This
picture shows music at
a religious ceremony.
This snap shot shows one of
the oldest surviving drama
traditions of the world, the
2000 year old Sanskrit theatre.
The tradition of folk theater is
popular in most linguistic
regions of India. In addition,
there is a rich tradition of
puppet theater in rural India,
going back to at least the
second century BCE.
Visual Arts
The earliest Indian paintings were the
rock paintings of pre-historic times, the
petroglyphs as found in places like
Bhimbetka, some of which go back to
the Stone Age. Cave paintings from
Ajanta, Bagh, Ellora and Sittanavasal
and temple paintings testify to a love of
naturalism. Freshly made colored flour
designs (Rangoli) is still a common sight
outside the doorstep of many (mostly
South Indian) Indian homes.
The first sculptures in India date back to
the Indus Valley civilization, where stone
and bronze figures have been discovered.
Later, as religions developed further,
India produced some extremely intricate
bronzes as well as temple carvings.
During the Gupta period (4th to 6th
century) sculpture reached a very high
standard in execution and delicacy in
modeling.
Architecture
Recreation and Sports
In the area of recreation and sports
India had evolved a number of games.
The modern eastern martial arts
originated as ancient games and
martial arts in India, and it is believed
by some that these games were
transmitted to foreign countries, where
they were further adapted and
modernized.
A few games introduced during the
British Raj have grown quite popular in
India: field hockey, football (soccer) and
especially cricket. Although field hockey
is India's official national sport, cricket
is by far the most popular sport not
only in India, but the entire
subcontinent, thriving recreationally
and professionally.
Indoor and outdoor games like Chess,
Snakes and Ladders, Playing cards,
Carrom, Badminton are popular. Chess
was invented in India.
Games of strength and speed flourished
in India. In ancient India stones were used
for weights, marbles, and dice.
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