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INDIA: THE LAND OF MANY LANGUAGES. AND MANY NATIONS



India has 780 living languages. They belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 75% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 20% of Indians. Other languages belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates. India (780) has the world's second highest number of languages, after Papua New Guinea (839), where every tribe has a language of its own, which is quite similar to areas such as the Naga Hills where the terrain and cultures resulted a different language beyond every ridge line.

The language issue in India overrides, and has overridden, all other divisions based on ideology at the empirical level. Modern India’s fault lines are where the colours change. These faultlines are compounded by differing genetic histories.

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