Languages and Characters of India Top Languages Mathematics Japanese
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Administrative Divisions

India, in 2001, consists of 29 States and 6 Union Territories. Since 1991 Delhi (former Union Territory) became a state and 3 new states were formed. The word former in the table means restoration to the local language from English. You can get authoritative information from Directory of official web sites of Government of India, maps from Maps of India.
Name Remarks
Union Territories
Andaman & Nicobar consists of islans on the Bay of Bengal.
Chandigarh is located between Punjab and Haryana, and is the state capital of both states.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli is located between Gujarat and Maharashtra. Former Portuguese territories.
Daman and Diu is located inside Gujarat. Diu is an island. Former Portuguese territories.
Lakshadweep consists of islands on the Arabian Sea, including Amindivi islands, Laccadive islands and Minicoy island. Maldives insalnds in the south is the Republic of Maldives itself.
Pondicherry consists of geographically dispersed 4 areas (former French territories) in the south India.
States
Andhra Pradesh *1-
Arunachal Pradesh *1-
Assam -
Bihar -
Chhattisgarh In 2000 Madhya Pradesh was bifurcated into Chhattisgarh (east half) and Madhya Pradesh (west half).
Delhi got a Legislative Assembly in 1991. The state capital Delhi is the national capital.
Goa is the smallest state. Former Portuguese territory.
Gujarat -
Haryana -
Himachal Pradesh *1 -
Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan side is called Azad*2 Kashmir.
Jharkhand was carved out of southern Bihar in 2000.
Karnataka Former Mysore state. Bengaluru (former Bangalore) is the state capital. (2006.11.1)
Kerala -
Madhya Pradesh *1 -
Maharashtra Mumbai (former Bombay*3) is the state capital.
Manipur -
Meghalaya -
Mizoram -
Nagaland -
Orissa -
Punjab -
Rajasthan -
Sikkim There is Mt. Kangchenjunga (approx. 8600m), the third highest in the world.
Tamil Nadu Chennai (former Madras) is the state capital. Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in this state.
Tripura -
Uttar Pradesh *1 -
Uttaranchal was carved out of northern Uttar Pradesh in 2000.
West Bengal The state capital Kolkata (former Calcutta) is the former national capital. In 1999, the state assembly had also decided unanimously to rename West Bengal as Bangla in the way Bengalis like to say it. The state runs north and south across the Ganges, surrounded by the Kingdom of Nepal, Sikkim, the Kingdom of Bhutan and Assam in the north, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa in the west, the People's Republic of Bangla Desh in the east, the Bay of Bengal in the south.
(*1) Pradesh tailing after the name of 5 states, is Hindi, state in English. (Source: The Collins English Dictionary(c))
(*2) Azad is Urdu, free in English, derived from Persian. Aazaad may be closer transliteration.
(*3) "Pompeii" is an ancient Roman city buried in volcanic ashes, "Pohnpei" (former Ponape) is Micronesian islands.

Religions

The following short table shows the percentage of believers of major religions in India. Its source is the Census of India 1991. (Excluding Jammu & Kashmir. *1)
Hindus*2 82.00%*3 Muslims12.12% Christians2.34% Sikhs1.94% Other religionsless than 1%
The following map, quoted from Perry-Castanñeda Library Map Collection, shows the ratio of each believers state by state. Its source is the Census of India 1981. Notice that the map is rather old, e.g. Soviet Union in the map is now Tajikistan.
India's Religions, Source : Census of India, 1981
(*1) The Census of India explains that
1991 Census was not conducted in Jammu & Kashmir (J & K) state due to disturbed conditions prevailing there at the time of census enumeration. All the statistics relating to 1991 Census provided in this site do not include corresponding statistics for Jammu & Kashmir unless otherwise stated.
(*2) Hindu is a believer in Hinduism, Hindi is a language.
(*3) It seems simply that Hindus doubled in the decade though 1991 data does not include one of J & K where Islam is relatively popular. This is because the population ratio of J & K is about 1% of India. It is interesting that about 80% of population are Hindus and 40% speak Hindi. Although Hinduism is not counted as the world's three major religions, Hindus are tremendously many, thinking that Indian population is over billion (=109) in 2001.

Languages and Characters of India

Each States has its own languages. And many ethnic minorities have their own, so the number of languages may be about 850~1700. About 40% of population speak Hindi in 1991, and English is spoken as a common language. Other than these two, the constitution of India*1 admits 17 languages including Sanskrit, 11 of them are spoken by 1~10% of population, and 6 less than 1%. The following table is based on states in 1991.
Language family State or country Language Character Remarks
Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman Arunachal Pradesh Nisi (Dafla)?Nepali, Bengali too
Nagaland NagaBengali divides into some branches, Ao, Sema, Konyak, etc.
Manipur Manipuri-
Mizoram LushaiMizo is a dialect of Lushai.
Tripura Tripuri (Bengali is spoken mainly)?-
Meghalaya Khasi, Garo?-
Bhutan DzongkhaTibetanNepali, Tshangla too
Sikkim Lepcha (Nepali and Bhotia are spoken mainly) Lepcha-
Nepal Newarioriginal-
Indo-European, Indic (Aryan) NepaliDevanagari-
Assam AssameseBengali-
Bangla Desh Bengali-
West Bengal -
Pakistan UrduArabicNastaliq style
SindhiNaskh style
PunjabiGurmuki-
GujaratiGujarati-
Jammu and Kashmir KashmiriArabic -
Urdu
Punjab PunjabiGurmuki-
Gujarat GujaratiGujarati-
SindhiArabic-
Sanskritists SanskritDevanagari is missing (or extinct) as daily conversation.
Himachal Pradesh Hindi-
Haryana -
Rajasthan -
Madhya Pradesh -
Maharashtra Marathi-
Goa-
KonkaniLatina dialect of Marathi
Uttar Pradesh Hindi,

Urdu 		Devanagari,

Arabic 		-
Bihar Bihari is local.
Orissa OriyaOriya-
Sri Lanka1 SinhalaSinhalese-
Maldives Maldivian (Divehi)Maldivian resembles Sinhala.
Andhra Pradesh UrduArabic-
Dravidian (original inhabitant) TeluguTelugu-
Tamil Nadu TamilTamil -
Sri Lanka2-
Karnataka KannadaKanarese-
Kerala MalayalamMalayalamis similar to Tamil but complicated.

Constitution

You can consult the constitution of India at India Code Information System (INCODIS), Institut fur offentliches Recht, or Constitution Society in English. The constitution which came into force in 1950 consists of 22 parts. The whole part XVII is assigned for official language and consists of following chapters.
Chapter I.-Language of the Union Article 343,344
Chapter II.-Regional languages Article 345-347
Chapter III.- Language of the Supreme Court, High Courts, etc. Article 348,349
Chapter IV.-Special directives Article 350-351
For example, the 1st clause of article 343 "Official language of the Union" of Ch.I declares that
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.
Hindi and Urdu of which script is Arabic are identical as a colloquial language, since both are descended from Sanskrit. So the clause specifies the script. (See A Brief Hindi - Urdu FAQ.) The international form of Indian numerals means what is called Arabic numerals. (See Figures of the world.)

The Eighth Schedule pointed from Articles 344 (1) and 351 lists following 18 languages in alphabetical order.
1. Assamese.- 7. Konkani.added in 1992 13. Punjabi.-
2. Bengali.- 8. Malayalam.- 14. Sanskrit.-
3. Gujarati.- 9. Manipuri.added in 1992 15. Sindhi.added in 1967
4. Hindi.- 10. Marathi.- 16. Tamil.-
5. Kannada.- 11. Nepali.added in 1992 17. Telugu.-
6. Kashmiri.- 12. Oriya.- 18. Urdu.-
Sixteen languages (bold face in the table) and English are printed on the bank note of India in 2001.
Updated on 2003.4.4 First edition : 2001.12.25