While English is an official language of the Union under the constitutional provisions relating to official languages, it is not one of the 22 official recognized languages regional languages of India (such as Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Sanskrit, Assamese, etc.) in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution.
Under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi (in the Devanagari script) is designated as the official language of the Union, with English permitted as an "subsidiary" official language for official and administrative transactions.
While the Central Government relies heavily on English, India’s individual states have the constitutional freedom to choose their own official languages. English serves as a primary or additional/subsidiary official language in several states and Union Territories:
States where English is a Primary Official Language:
- Nagaland (The first state to adopt English as its sole official language to serve as a bridge among its 16+ distinct tribal languages)
- Arunachal Pradesh
- Meghalaya
- Mizoram
- Sikkim
States where English is an Additional/Subsidiary Official Language:
- Manipur
- Tripura
- West Bengal
- Kerala
Union Territories using English officially:
- Andaman & Nicobar Islands
- Chandigarh
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
- Delhi
- Jammu and Kashmir
- Ladakh
- Lakshadweep
- Puducherry
Fun Facts about English & India
* The "15-Year" Expiration Date That Failed: When the Indian Constitution was commenced in 1950, it stated that English would only be used as an official language for a transitional period of 15 years (until 1965), after which Hindi was supposed to take over completely. However, massive protests and political opposition from non-Hindi-speaking states (particularly Tamil Nadu) led the government to pass the Official Languages Act of 1963, ensuring English would continue indefinitely as an associate official language.
* The "15-Year" Expiration Date That Failed: When the Indian Constitution was commenced in 1950, it stated that English would only be used as an official language for a transitional period of 15 years (until 1965), after which Hindi was supposed to take over completely. However, massive protests and political opposition from non-Hindi-speaking states (particularly Tamil Nadu) led the government to pass the Official Languages Act of 1963, ensuring English would continue indefinitely as an associate official language.
* The Absolute King of the Judiciary: While regional languages are used in lower trials, the Constitution mandates that English is the sole official language of the Supreme Court of India and all High Courts (unless specific presidential exceptions are cleared for a state). Legal briefs, petitions, arguments, and judgments at the highest level are exclusively carried out in English.
* The "Hinglish" Takeover: India has birthed its own massive dialect variation commonly called Hinglish (a blend of Hindi and English). It is so structurally integrated into modern pop culture, Bollywood, advertising, and tech that major multinational corporations create localized ad campaigns exclusively in Hinglish rather than standard English or pure Hindi.
* Unique "Indianisms" in the Dictionary: Over the centuries, Indian English evolved its own unique vocabulary that has officially entered global dictionaries like Oxford. Phrases like "Pre-pone" (the opposite of postpone), "Passing out" (meaning graduating from a college/academy, rather than fainting), "Cousin brother/sister", and "Doing the needful" are standard, grammatically accepted business-English terms in India.
* Global Speaker Powerhouse: India has the second-largest English-speaking population in the world, trailing only the United States. Depending on demographic metrics, roughly 10% to 12% of India's population speaks English—which equates to over 130–150 million people, outnumbering the entire population of the United Kingdom!