Official Language (Indian Polity and Governance)

Total Questions: 22

21. The number of official languages recognised by the constitution in the eight schedule is......... [48th to 52nd B.P.S.C. (Pre) 2008, Uttarakhand P.C.S. (Mains) 2006, U.P.P.C.S. (Spl) (Mains) 2004]

Correct Answer: (e) 22
Solution:Before 92- Constitution Amendment Act, 2003 there were total 18 languages in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution which increased to 22 after 92- Constitution Amendment Act.
8th Schedule of Indian Constitution and the Articles related to it
Article 344Committee and Commission of Parliament on official language
Article 344(1)• establishment of a Commission by the President on the expiration of 5 years from the commencement of the Constitution and afterwards at the expiration of 10 years from such commencement

• It should comprise of a Chairman and other members representing the various languages specified in the 8th Schedule to make recommendations to the President for the dynamic use of Hindi for official purposes at the Government of India.

Article 351The duty of the Union to encourage the spread of the Hindi language to advance it so that it may serve as a medium of communication for all the components of the composite culture of India and to safeguard its enhancement by integrating without interfering with its genius, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the 8th Schedule, and by drawing, anywhere essential or required, for its terminology, mainly, on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

22. Percentage of Hindi speaking Indians is about : [R.A.S./R.T.S.(Pre) 2003]

Correct Answer: (e) 41
Solution:According to the Census-2001 data, the percentage of Hindi speaking Indians was maximum. It was 41.03% as per 2001 census and 43.63% as per 2011 census.

Hindi is the official fanguage of the Republic of India and is spoken by most of the country's 1.3 billion people. It is an Indo-Aryan language related to other languages such as Sanskrit and Punjabi and is written in the Devanagari script.
Hindi has a long and fascinating history that is closely tied to the development of the Indian subcontinent and the people who have lived there. The earliest known examples of Hindi date back to the 10m century and are found in the Khari Boli dialect, which is the basis for Modern Standard Hindi.
Over the centuries, Hindi has undergone several significant changes, both in its spoken and written forms. One of the most important of these was the development of a standardized form of the language during the British colonial period, which helped to promote literacy and make Hindi more widely understood