<P> Article 343 of the Indian constitution states that the official language of the Union shall become Hindi in Devanagari script instead of the extant English, but is superseded by English subsequently too as mentioned in section 3 of the same constitutional article that is put to effect by The Official Languages Act, 1963 . The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union were supposed to become international form of Indian numerals consequently apart from numerals in English language . Despite the misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India . The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language . </P> <P> English was legislated to be reduced to the status of a "subsidiary official language" after fifteen years . But this provision of the constitution was negated by a provision in Section 3, of the same Article 343 that gave primacy to The Official Languages Act, 1963 . The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement . In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia . </P> <P> According to Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages . However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people . Two contact languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian and English . Persian was the court language during the Mughal period in India . It reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation . English continues to be an important language in India . It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government . Hindi, the most widely spoken language in a large region of India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of North and Central India . However, there have been anti-Hindi agitations in South India, most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu . There is also opposition in non-Hindi belt states towards imposition of Hindi in these areas . </P> <P> The southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family . The Dravidian languages are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent . Proto - Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE . The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami--Parji), South - Central (Telugu--Kui) and South Dravidian (Tamil - Kannada). </P>

How many major languages are there in india