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Official scripts of India

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There are several official scripts of India, which are either used officially by the Union government or by the state governments. The official languages of the Indian Union are Hindi and English, whereas the Devanagari script is used to write Hindi and the Latin script is used for English. Alongside, the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists languages that are officially recognised by the Indian government.[1] However, the state legislatures are free to adopt by law any languages as official ones.[2][3]

Devanagari script

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The Constitution of India says:

The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.

— Part XVII of the Indian Constitution[4]

Being the official script for Hindi, Devanagari is officially used in the Union Government of India as well as several Indian states where Hindi is an official language, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the Indian union territories of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.[5] Gujarat[6][7] and West Bengal also officially use Devanagari, as these two states recognise Hindi as an additional official language.[8]

The Devanagari script (देवनागरी, romanized: Devanāgarī) is the officially mandated script of the Bodo language in Assam,[9] the Konkani language in Goa,[10] and Sanskrit in Himachal Pradesh.[11]

Gurmukhi script

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Not to be confused with Shahmukhi, the Punjabi script used in Punjab, Pakistan.

The Gurmukhi script (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) is the official script for the Punjabi language in Punjab,[12] and Delhi.[13]

Meitei script

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The Meitei script (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meitei mayek) is the officially mandated script for the Meitei language of Manipur,[14] replacing the Bengali script, albeit with some allowance for parallel use.

Tamil Script

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The Tamil script (Tamil: தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி, romanized: Tamiḻ ariccuvaṭi) is the official script for the Tamil language in Tamil Nadu[15] and Union Territory Puducherry.[16] Although there is no explicit legal provision defining the Tamil script as the official script, it is implicitly recognised as such since it is used in the formulation of laws and official documents.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Eighth Schedule" (PDF). Government of India. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  2. ^ "CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS | Department of Official Language | Ministry of Home Affairs | GoI". rajbhasha.gov.in. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  3. ^ "India: Official Languages Act". About us. Retrieved 2025-03-09.
  4. ^ "Sequence of events with reference to official language of the Union". Archived from the original on 2 August 2011.
  5. ^ "Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 50th report (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  6. ^ "The Gujarat Official Languages Act, 1960" (PDF). indiacode.nic.in. 1961. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  7. ^ Benedikter, Thomas (2009). Language Policy and Linguistic Minorities in India: An Appraisal of the Linguistic Rights of Minorities in India. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 89. ISBN 978-3-643-10231-7. Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Multi-lingual Bengal". The Telegraph. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 25 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  9. ^ "The Assam Official Language Act, 1960". India Code. Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  10. ^ "The Goa, Daman and Diu Official Language Act, 1987" (PDF). U.T. Administration of Daman & Diu. 19 December 1987. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  11. ^ "The Himachal Pradesh Official Language Act, 1975". India Code. Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India.
  12. ^ "Punjab Official Languages Act, 1967". www.bareactslive.com. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  13. ^ The Delhi Official Language Act, 2000.
  14. ^ "The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021". manipurgovtpress.nic.in. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  15. ^ "The Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, 1956" (PDF). Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  16. ^ "The Pondicherry Official Languages Act, 1965" (PDF). Archived from the original on September 11, 2014. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
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