India represents languages and culture of large diversities. Different languages, cultures and ethnic groups are both sources of strength and weakness. The extent of linguistic heterogeneity is reflected in the fact that there are 1652 mother tongues (1961). Of these, barring unclassified languages whose identity is not clear, are mapped by 4 language families. There are 601 unclassified languages, 532 Indo-Aryan languages, 53 Austric, 148 Dravidian. 227 Tibeto-Chinese and 9 Sikkim. Some 400 out of these are tribal languages. There are 15 scheduled languages to which 3 languages, such as Knonkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added to the list in 1992 by the 71st Amendment to the constitution of India.
All these are non-state languages. English, the major language of interlection, and Sanskrit, the classical language providing identity and rootedness to all Indian languages irrespective of their family affiliation. Out of these 12 languages, 11 have their home States and Hindi does not belong to any particular state but is spoken in a number of northern States. The 11 major languages are distributed among two language families, Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. Assamese, Bengali, Oriya in the east, Marathi and Gujarati in the West, Panjabi and Kashmiri in the north-central are Indo- Aryan languages and Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam in the south are Dravidian languages. These major languages are dominant as identity token, but not homogeneous in terms of use and communication. None of the Munda and Tibeto-Chinese languages have either the numerical strength or strong literary tradition.
The linguistic diversity noticed in the macro-structure of the country is also reflected in its regional and micro-structure, i.e. in the constituent States. Even though the State boundaries are carved on the basis of dominant languages, the States are multi-lingual. The minority languages in the States of course vary from province to province. When one surveys the linguistic scenario of the country it appears India is a country of linguistic minorities. All the States have their dominant languages, yet they also have certain numbers of minority languages. Even States, like Arunanchal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram etc. have minority languages.
This scenario is an outcome of nearly, 2000 years of cultural miscegenation which has resulted through interpenetration of several languages and cultures. For example, the dividing line between the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages runs across the States of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In east-west direction there is a lot of interpenetration of both the languages across this tentative demarcating line. Speakers of Dravidian languages are found in the northern half of the country as speakers of Indo-Aryan languages are found in the southern half. In India Indo-Aryan languages are spoken by the largest majority of people and it is followed by speakers of Dravidian language numerically. The third position is occupied by the languages of the Tibeto-Chinese family and the last position goes to the Austro-Asiatic language family.
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The linguistic heterogeneity does not bind us to regional universals of language and culture which bind India as a language and culture area. The Indian constitution binds the whole country irrespective of linguistic and cultural variations. Articles 343 to 351 of the Constitution deal with the language situation in India. Articles 29 and 30 and 347 have been devised to safeguard the interest of speakers of minority languages. Article 350 (B) envisages the appointment of a Special Officer for linguistic minorities.
16 major literary languages have been included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The Eighth Schedule envisages State effort for enrichment of these languages. There is special demand by the speakers of some other languages for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule so as to get State patronage and funding for enrichment of such languages.
In the State of Orissa there are speakers of 14 Schedule languages with varying number of speakers. The Schedule languages spoken in Orissa are, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. There are also some speakers of Rajasthani, Sindhi and Nepali languages. Besides there are 3 major tribal language groups, viz. Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan. The speakers of Indo-Aryan language are numerically preponderant, followed by the Austro-Asiatic language family and Dravidian language family, respectively. In the past all the tribal languages did not have literary tradition. In the recent decades in order to strengthen their ethno-cultural identity some of them have devised scripts for their languages, such as Ol Chiki of the Santal, Warang Chiki of HO, Soran sompen of the Saora and the Kui of the Kandha and Mundari Bani Hisir of the Mundari language.