JOIN USSo this year I've decided to learn Ho and Kokborok. Are these games? Skills? What? You know? If you don’t know, Ho is the language spoken by the Ho people of Jharkhand, and Kokborok is the local language spoken by some people in Tripura. But this month I’ve been trying to speak in Hindi since I had to give a speech in Hindi on ‘Hindi Diwas’.
Hindi was declared official language by the Constitutional Assembly on September 14, 1949. Since then, every year, September 14 is celebrated as ‘Hindi Day’ in all Central Government offices situated in India and abroad. Roughly 41 per cent of people in India are native Hindi speakers, and 0.103 per cent of the Indian population consists of native Ho speakers. And since I study in an English medium school, and since everyone around me here in the city seems to know English, I could not believe my eyes when I read somewhere that only 0.021 per cent of the population were native English speakers!
Now, tell me — no, I’m not going to ask you a percentage-related question — how many National languages does India have? You know, like National Bird, National Animal...?
Out of the maze:
None. The Indian Union has two official languages – Hindi, with English as an additional language for official work. States in India can legislate their own official languages. Neither the Constitution of India nor any Indian law defines any language as a National Language.