Languages in the Eighth Schedule

The Eighth Schedule lists languages that receive constitutional recognition for specific language-policy purposes. Inclusion does not make a language a national language or automatically make it an official language; its principal constitutional effects arise under Articles 344 and 351.

Composition and evolution

The Eighth Schedule currently contains 22 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

• The Constitution originally listed 14 languages; Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment Act, 1967.
• Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added by the 71st Amendment Act, 1992; Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act, 2003.
• The 96th Amendment Act, 2011 changed the name Oriya to Odia.

Constitutional functions

Under Article 344, the Official Language Commission includes members representing the languages specified in the Schedule while recommending measures concerning the Union's official-language policy. Under Article 351, the Union must promote and develop Hindi, drawing for its enrichment on Hindustani and the other scheduled languages.

Limits of scheduled status

Official-language status is governed separately. Article 343 identifies Hindi in the Devanagari script as the Union's official language, while Article 345 empowers a state legislature to adopt one or more languages in use in the state, or Hindi, for official purposes.

• Cultural and linguistic-minority protections under Article 29 and Articles 350A-350B are not confined to speakers of Eighth Schedule languages.