India is a pluralistic society. Its people speak different languages and practice different religions. The Hindus constitute about 80 per cent of India’s total population of one billion plus. The Muslims form about 14 per cent. The remaining six per cent are Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and Parsis. Hindi, the official language of the country, is spoken by the majority of the population, particularly in the North---mainly in the provinces of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkand, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Delhi . The languages spoken in provinces such as Maharashtra (Marathi), Gujarat (Gujarati), Punjab and Haryana (Punjabi) and Jammu & Kashmir (Urdu-Kashmiri) have similarities to Hindi. The languages spoken in Tamil Nadu (Tamil), Kerala (Malayalam), Karnataka (Kannada), Andhra Pradesh (Telugu), Orissa ( Oriya), West Bengal and Tripura (Bengali) and Assam (Assamese) are distinct from Hindi. However, the languages spoken in Orissa, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura have similarities to each other. The languages/dialects spoken in Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in the North-East have very little resemblance to the languages/dialects spoken elsewhere in the country.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 08:06:28 +0000
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