Tag: culture

Official languages of India are listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. As per Article 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, Eighth Schedule recognizes 22 languages. States and Union Territory can adopt an official language which is used locally for carrying out administrative duties. Option B - 22 is the correct count of official languages.     

Part XVII of the constitution deals with the official language in Articles 343 to 351. In this part, it is written that Hindi written in Devanagari script is to be the official language of India, but the form of numbers to be used for official purposes has to be in the international form of Indian numerals and not the Devanagari form of numerals.

The Sinhala Only Bill, formally known as The Official Language Act 1956 passed by the government of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) made Sinhalese the official language of the country. Sirimavo Bandaranaike then PM of Sri Lanka realized her campaign promise by passing the Bill, an agenda which won her 1956 general elections. This decision was violently opposed by Tamil speaking minority and the passage of bill followed rioting.   

People of Meghalaya, which is one of the north-eastern states of India, do not speak Hindi widely. The languages like Garo, Pnar, Khasi, and English are spoken widely in this state. English is the official language of Meghalaya. 

'Nowruz' is celebrated as a New-year by the followers of Zoroastrianism. Nowruz has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. Festival of Nowruz is celebrated in Iran, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Tajikestan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The first state formed on the linguistic basis is Andhra Pradesh. The state of Andhra Pradesh was formed on October 1, 1953. It was bifurcated from Tamil Nadu.

Language is a medium of communication. There are a huge number of languages spoken over the world. In India there are 22 official or recognised languages. The list of official languages include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. National language of India is Hindi.

Music and dance are the ancient art forms of India which are still persistent in the present day India. Music and dance help in bringing different people together. Examples of some Indian dance forms are Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Lavani etc. and music forms include Carnatic and Hindustani.

Andhra Pradesh emerged as a first linguistic state on Nov. 1, 1956. In Oct. 1953, the government of India was forced to create the first linguist state known as Andhra Pradesh by separating the Telugu speaking areas from Madras state. In Dec. 1953 Government of India appoint a three-member States Reorganisation Commission which submitted its report in 1955 and later in 1956 Andhra was separated officially and became a new state.