Railway
When the Constitution came into force in 1950, how many languages were originally included in its Eighth Schedule?
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Answer: Option A — 14
Detailed Solution
When the Constitution came into force in 1950, the Eighth Schedule originally included 14 languages.
The original 14 languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya (now Odia), Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
Growth of the Eighth Schedule:
- Over the years, eight more languages were added by constitutional amendments, bringing the total to 22 languages at present.
- These additions were made at different times in response to the demands of various linguistic communities.
- The present 22 languages include, besides the original 14: Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali.
Change of name:
An amendment later changed the name "Oriya" to "Odia" in the Eighth Schedule.
Purpose of the Eighth Schedule:
- The Eighth Schedule was originally linked to the provisions on the Official Language Commission and the development of Hindi.
- The Official Language Commission was to include members representing the different languages in the Eighth Schedule.
- The Union has a duty to develop Hindi by drawing on the forms, style and expressions of the other languages in the Schedule, and primarily on Sanskrit.
Benefits of inclusion today:
- Candidates can write the Civil Services Main Examination in any of the Eighth Schedule languages.
- The Sahitya Akademi gives awards for literature in these languages (and some others).
- The languages get government support for their development.
English and the Eighth Schedule:
English is not included in the Eighth Schedule, although it is used for official purposes of the Union along with Hindi.
Number of mother tongues:
The Census of 2011 recorded more than 19,500 raw mother tongues, which were grouped into 121 languages; 22 of these are in the Eighth Schedule.
Most spoken languages:
Hindi is the most widely spoken language, followed by Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil (Census 2011).
Why not the other options?
- ✗12, 18 and 22 are not the original number; 22 is the present number of languages in the Eighth Schedule.
Quick tip
Remember: Eighth Schedule = originally 14 languages; now 22 (Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali added later).
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Languages & Scripts — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Languages & Scripts, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the languages of India, the 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, classical languages, official languages of states, scripts such as Brahmi, Kharosthi and Devanagari, and the most widely spoken languages of the world. Questions often ask which languages have classical status, which language is official in a particular state, or how many languages the Eighth Schedule contains. Remember the amendments that added languages to the Eighth Schedule (for example, the 92nd Amendment added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali). Because the list of classical languages has grown over time, check the latest official count before your exam. Practise the languages and scripts questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.