<P> During the British Raj, English was used for purposes at the federal level . The Indian constitution adopted in 1950 envisaged that Hindi would be gradually phased in to replace English over a fifteen - year period, but gave Parliament the power to, by law, provide for the continued use of English even thereafter . Plans to make Hindi the sole official language of the Republic met with resistance in some parts of the country . Hindi continues to be used today, in combination with other (at the central level and in some states) State official languages at the state level . </P> <P> The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently includes the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) Rules, 1976, and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations made by the central government and the states . </P> <P> The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union . Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 January 1965 . The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non Hindi - speaking areas of India, especially Dravidian - speaking states whose languages were not related to Hindi at all . As a result, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965 . </P> <P> In late 1964, an attempt was made to expressly provide for an end to the use of English, but it was met with protests from states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh . Some of these protests also turned violent . As a result, the proposal was dropped, and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of the Indian Parliament . </P>

When was hindi made national language of india