Mahatma Gandhi

Anti-War Activist (1869–1948)

Mahatma Gandhi was the primary leader of India’s independence movement and also
the architect of a form of non-violent civil disobedience that would influence the world.
Until Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, his life and teachings inspired activists including
Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Who Was Mahatma Gandhi?

Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869 to January 30, 1948) was the leader of India’s non-
violent independence movement against British rule and in South Africa who advocated for
the civil rights of Indians. Born in Porbandar, India, Gandhi studied law and organized
boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He was killed by
a fanatic in 1948.

When and Where Was Gandhi Born?

Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi (born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was
born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India, which was then part of the British
Empire.

Wife and Family

Mahatma Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, served as a chief minister in
Porbandar and other states in western India. His mother, Putlibai, was a deeply religious
woman who fasted regularly.

At the age of 13, Mahatma Gandhi wed Kasturba Makanji, a merchant’s daughter, in
an arranged marriage. In 1885, he endured the passing of his father and shortly after that the
death of his young baby. In 1888, Gandhi’s wife gave birth to the first of four surviving sons.
A second son was born in India 1893; Kasturba would give birth to two more sons while
living in South Africa, one in 1897 and one in 1900.

Early Life and Education

 Young Gandhi was a shy, unremarkable student who was so timid that he slept with
the lights on even as a teenager. In the ensuing years, the teenager rebelled by smoking,
eating meat and stealing change from household servants.

Although Gandhi was interested in becoming a doctor, his father had hoped he would
also become a government minister, so his family steered him to enter the legal profession.
In 1888, 18-year-old Gandhi sailed for London, England, to study law. The young Indian
struggled with the transition to Western culture.

Upon returning to India in 1891, Gandhi learned that his mother had died just weeks
earlier. He struggled to gain his footing as a lawyer. In his first courtroom case, a nervous
Gandhi blanked when the time came to cross-examine a witness. He immediately fled the
courtroom after reimbursing his client for his legal fees

Religion and Beliefs

Gandhi grew up worshiping the Hindu god Vishnu and following Jainism, a morally
rigorous ancient Indian religion that espoused non-violence, fasting, meditation and
vegetarianism.

During Gandhi’s first stay in London, from 1888 to 1891, he became more committed
to a meatless diet, joining the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society, and
started to read a variety of sacred texts to learn more about world religions.
Living in South Africa, Gandhi continued to study world religions. “The religious
spirit within me became a living force,” he wrote of his time there. He immersed himself in
sacred Hindu spiritual texts and adopted a life of simplicity, austerity, fasting and celibacy
that was free of material goods.

Gandhi’s Ashram & the Indian Caste System

In 1915 Gandhi founded an ashram in Ahmedabad, India, that was open to all castes.
Wearing a simple loincloth and shawl, Gandhi lived an austere life devoted to prayer, fasting
and meditation. He became known as “Mahatma,” which means “great soul.”
In 1932, Gandhi, at the time imprisoned in India, embarked on a six-day fast to protest
the British decision to segregate the “untouchables,” those on the lowest rung of India’s caste
system, by allotting them separate electorates. The public outcry forced the British to amend
the proposal.

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

In the late afternoon of January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi, weakened from
repeated hunger strikes, clung to his two grandnieces as they led him from his living quarters
in New Delhi’s Birla House to a prayer meeting.

Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse, upset at Gandhi’s tolerance of Muslims, knelt

before the Mahatma before pulling out a semiautomatic pistol and shooting him three times
at point-blank range. The violent act took the life of a pacifist who spent his life preaching
nonviolence. Godse and a co-conspirator were executed by hanging in November 1949,
while additional conspirators were sentenced to life in prison.

Gandhi in South Africa

After struggling to find work as a lawyer in India, Gandhi obtained a one-year contract
to perform legal services in South Africa. In April 1893, he sailed for Durban in the South
African state of Natal.
When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, he was quickly appalled by the discrimination
and racial segregation faced by Indian immigrants at the hands of white British and Boer
authorities. Upon his first appearance in a Durban courtroom, Gandhi was asked to remove
his turban. He refused and left the court instead. The Natal Advertiser mocked him in print as
“an unwelcome visitor.”

A seminal moment in Gandhi’s life occurred days later on June 7, 1893, during a train
trip to Pretoria, South Africa, when a white man objected to his presence in the first-class
railway compartment, although he had a ticket. Refusing to move to the back of the train,
Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg. His
act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to fighting the
“deep disease of color prejudice.” He vowed that night to “try, if possible, to root out the
disease and suffer hardships in the process.” From that night forward, the small, unassuming
man would grow into a giant force for civil rights. Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress
in 1894 to fight discrimination.
At the end of his year-long contract, Gandhi prepared to return to India until he
learned, at his farewell party, of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would
deprive Indians of the right to vote. Fellow immigrants convinced Gandhi to stay and lead
the fight against the legislation. Although Gandhi could not prevent the law’s passage, he
drew international attention to the injustice.
After a brief trip to India in late 1896 and early 1897, Gandhi returned to South Africa
with his wife and children. Gandhi ran a thriving legal practice, and at the outbreak of the
Boer War, he raised an all-Indian ambulance corps of 1,100 volunteers to support the British
cause, arguing that if Indians expected to have full rights of citizenship in the British Empire,
they also needed to shoulder their responsibilities as well.

Satyagraha and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience

In 1906, Gandhi organized his first mass civil-disobedience campaign, which he called
“Satyagraha” (“truth and firmness”), in reaction to the South African Transvaal
government’s new restrictions on the rights of Indians, including the refusal to recognize
Hindu marriages.
After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in 1913,
including Gandhi. Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise
negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu
marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. When Gandhi sailed from South Africa
in 1914 to return home, Smuts wrote, “The saint has left our shores, I sincerely hope
forever.” At the outbreak of World War I, Gandhi spent several months in London.
 In 1919, with India still under the firm control of the British, Gandhi had a political
reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison
people suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha
campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Violence broke out instead, which culminated on
April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar, when troops led by British Brigadier General
Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly
400 people. No longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, Gandhi returned
the medals he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain’s
mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I.

Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass
boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop
attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes
and purchasing British goods. Rather than buy British-manufactured clothes, he began to use
a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth, and the spinning wheel soon became a
symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the
Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to
achieve home rule.

After British authorities arrested Gandhi in 1922, he pleaded guilty to three counts of
sedition. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February
1924 after appendicitis surgery. He discovered upon his release that relations between
India’s Hindus and Muslims had devolved during his time in jail, and when violence
between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn
of 1924 to urge unity. He remained away from active politics during much of the latter
1920s.

Gandhi and the Salt March

In 1930, Gandhi returned to active politics to protest Britain’s Salt Acts, which not
only prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt—a dietary staple—but imposed a
heavy tax that hit the country’s poorest particularly hard. Gandhi planned a new Satyagraha
campaign that entailed a 390-kilometer/240-mile march to the Arabian Sea, where he would
collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly.
“My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence and
thus make them see the wrong they have done to India,” he wrote days before the march to
the British viceroy, Lord Irwin.
Wearing a homespun white shawl and sandals and carrying a walking stick, Gandhi
set out from his religious retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, 1930, with a few dozen
followers. By the time he arrived 24 days later in the coastal town of Dandi, the ranks of the
marchers swelled, and Gandhi broke the law by making salt from evaporated seawater.

The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across
India. Approximately 60,000 Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including
Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May 1930. Still, the protests against the Salt Acts elevated
Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world, and he was named Time magazine’s
“Man of the Year” for 1930.
 Gandhi was released from prison in January 1931, and two months later he made an
agreement with Lord Irwin to end the Salt Satyagraha in exchange for concessions that
included the release of thousands of political prisoners. The agreement, however, largely
kept the Salt Acts intact, but it did give those who lived on the coasts the right to harvest salt
from the sea. Hoping that the agreement would be a stepping-stone to home rule, Gandhi
attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform in August
1931 as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference, however,
proved fruitless.

India’s Independence from Great Britain

Gandhi returned to India to find himself imprisoned once again in January 1932 during
a crackdown by India’s new viceroy, Lord Willingdon. After his eventual release, Gandhi
left the Indian National Congress in 1934, and leadership passed to his protégé Jawaharlal
Nehru. He again stepped away from politics to focus on education, poverty and the problems
afflicting India’s rural areas.
As Great Britain found itself engulfed in World War II in 1942, though, Gandhi
launched the “Quit India” movement that called for the immediate British withdrawal from
the country. In August 1942, the British arrested Gandhi, his wife and other leaders of the
Indian National Congress and detained them in the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune. “I
have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside at the liquidation of the British
Empire,” Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Parliament in support of the crackdown.
With his health failing, Gandhi was released after a 19-month detainment, but not before his
74-year-old wife died in his arms in February 1944.

After the Labour Party defeated Churchill’s Conservatives in the British general
election of 1945, it began negotiations for Indian independence with the Indian National
Congress and Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League. Gandhi played an active role in the
negotiations, but he could not prevail in his hope for a unified India. Instead, the final plan
called for the partition of the subcontinent along religious lines into two independent states—
predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
Violence between Hindus and Muslims flared even before independence took effect
on August 15, 1947. Afterwards, the killings multiplied. Gandhi toured riot-torn areas in an
appeal for peace and fasted in an attempt to end the bloodshed. Some Hindus, however,
increasingly viewed Gandhi as a traitor for expressing sympathy toward Muslims.

Legacy
Even after Gandhi’s assassination, his commitment to nonviolence and his belief in
simple living — making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and using fasts for self-
purification as well as a means of protest — have been a beacon of hope for oppressed and
marginalized people throughout the world. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent
philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today, and Gandhi’s actions inspired
future human rights movements around the globe, including those of civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
Religion in India
Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices.
India is a secular state with no state religion. The Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of
the world's major religions; namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. According to the 2011
census, 79.8% of the population of India practices Hinduism, 14.2% adheres to Islam, 2.3% adheres
to Christianity, and 1.7% adheres to Sikhism. Zoroastrianism and Judaism also have an ancient history
in India, and each has several thousands of Indian adherents. India has the largest population of people
adhering to Zoroastrianism (i.e. Parsis and Iranis) and Bahá'í Faith in the world, even though these
religions are not native to India. Many other world religions also have a relationship with Indian
spirituality, such as the Baha'i faith which recognises the Buddha and Krishna as manifestations of the
God Almighty. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture.
Religious diversity and religious tolerance are both established in the country by the law and custom;
the Constitution of India has declared the right to freedom of religion to be a fundamental right.

Hinduism
Is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life, widely practised in the Indian
subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in
the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, "the
eternal tradition", or the "eternal way", beyond human history. Scholars regard Hinduism
as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no
founder. This "Hindu synthesis" started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE after
the end of the Vedic period (1500 BCE to 500 BCE), and flourished in the medieval
period, with the decline of Buddhism in India
Buddhism
Is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7%
of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety
of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed
to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient
India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading
through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized
by scholars: Theravada (Pali: "The School of the Elders") and Mahayana (Sanskrit: "The
Great Vehicle").
Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle of
death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of
Buddhahood. Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the
relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, and their
specific teachings and practices. Widely observed practices include taking refuge in
the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, observance of moral
precepts, monasticism, meditation, and the cultivation of the Paramitas (virtues).
Jainism
Traditionally known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient, non-theistic, Indian
religion, founded by Jina Mahavira in the 5th century BCE. Followers of Jainism are
 called "Jains", a word derived from the Sanskrit word jina (victor) and connoting the path
of victory in crossing over life's stream of rebirths through an ethical and spiritual
life. Jains trace their history through a succession of 24 victorious saviours and teachers
known as tirthankaras, with the first being Rishabhanatha, who according to Jain
tradition lived millions of years ago, twenty-third being Parshvanatha in 8th century BC
and twenty-fourth being the Mahāvīra around 500 BCE. Jains believe that Jainism is an
eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every cycle of the Jain cosmology.
The main religious premises of Jainism are ahiṃsā (non-
violence), anekāntavāda (many-sidedness), aparigraha (non-attachment) and asceticism.
Devout Jains take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not
stealing), brahmacharya(celibacy or chastity), and aparigraha (non-attachment). These
principles have impacted Jain culture in many ways, such as leading to a predominantly
vegetarian lifestyle that avoids harm to animals and their life cycles. Parasparopagraho
Jīvānām (the function of souls is to help one another) is the motto of Jainism. Ṇamōkāra
mantra is the most common and basic prayer in Jainism
Sikhism
Is a religion that originated in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian
subcontinent around the end of the 15th century, and has variously been defined
as monotheistic, monistic and panentheistic. It is one of the youngest of the major world
religions, and the world's fifth largest organized religion, as well as being the world's
ninth-largest overall religion. The fundamental beliefs of Sikhism, articulated in the
sacred scripture Guru Granth Sahib, include faith and meditation on the name of the one
creator, divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service, striving
for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all, and honest conduct and livelihood while
living a householder's life. In the early 21st century there were nearly 25 million Sikhs
worldwide, the great majority of them living in Punjab, according to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
Sikhism is based on the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak, the first Guru (1469–
1539), and the nine Sikh gurus that succeeded him. The Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh,
named the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib as his successor, terminating the line of
human Gurus and making the scripture the eternal, religious spiritual guide for Sikhs.
The Guru Granth Sahib is notable for actually being written by the founders of the
religion, and for including works by members of other religions. Sikhism rejects claims
that any particular religious tradition has a monopoly on Absolute Truth.
 Languages of India
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).
The northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved from
Old Indic by way of the Middle Indic Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages. The Indo-
Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE),
Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE) and New Indo-Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE).
The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved into distinct, recognisable languages in the New
Indo-Aryan Age.[24]
Persian or Farsi was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court
language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-
Mongol origin), influenced the art, history and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in
the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with
English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes, and the Hindi movement of the
19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the
use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari.
Each of the northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was strongly
influenced by Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, leading to the emergence of Modern Standard
Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language.

Language Families
Rank Language Family Population (2018)
1 Indo-Aryan language family 1,045,000,000 (78.05%)
2 Dravidian language family 265,000,000 (19.64%)
3 Austroasiatic language family Unknown
4 Sino-Tibetan language family Unknown
5 Tai–Kadai language family Unknown
6 Great Andamanese languages Unknown
Total Languages of India 1,340,000,000
Indo-Aryan language family
 Indo-Aryan language subgroups (Urdu is included under Hindi)
 The largest of the language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan
language family, a branch of the Indo-Iranian family, itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of
the Indo-European language family. This language family predominates, accounting for some 1035
million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, as per 2018 estimate. The most widely spoken
languages of this group
are Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Assamese
 (Asamiya), Maithili and Odia. Aside from the Indo-Aryan languages, other Indo-European languages
are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English, as a lingua franca.
Dravidian language family
 The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family, accounting for some 277
million speakers, or approximately 20.5% as per 2018 estimate The Dravidian languages are spoken
mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri
Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers
are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian
languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such as
the Oraon and Gond tribes. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside
India, Brahui in Pakistan and Dhangar, a dialect of Kurukh, in Nepal.
Austroasiatic language family
 Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous small Sino-Tibetan
languages, with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of the population.
 The Austroasiatic language family (austro meaning South) is the autochthonous language in South
Asia and Southeast Asia, other language families having arrived by migration. Austroasiatic
languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages, including Santhali. The languages
of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and
Santhali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered.
Sino-Tibetan language family
 The Sino-Tibetan language family are well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are
not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather
than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree".
 Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken across the Himalayas in the regions of Ladakh, Himachal
Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, and also in the Indian states of West
Bengal, Assam (hills and autonomous
councils), Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram. Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in
India include the scheduled languages Meitei and Bodo, the non-scheduled languages
of Karbi, Lepcha, and many varieties of several related Tibetic, West
Himalayish, Tani, Brahmaputran, Angami–Pochuri, Tangkhul, Zeme, Kukish language groups,
amongst many others.
Tai-Kadai language family
 Ahom language, a Southwestern Tai language, had been once the dominant language of the Ahom
Kingdom in modern-day Assam, but was later replaced by the Assamese language (known
as Kamrupi in ancient era which is the pre-form of the Kamrupi dialect of today). Nowadays, small
Tai communities and their languages remain in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh together with Sino-
Tibetans, e.g. Tai Phake, Tai Aiton and Tai Khamti, which are similar to the Shan language of Shan
State, Myanmar; the Dai language of Yunnan, China; the Lao language of Laos; the Thai
language of Thailand; and the Zhuang language in Guangxi, China.
Great Andamanese language family
 The extinct and endangered languages of the Andaman Islands form a fifth Andamanese- ,
comprising two families, namely:
o The Great Andamanese, comprising a number of extinct languages apart from one highly
endangered language with a dwindling number of speakers.
o The Ongan family of the southern Andaman Islands, comprising two extant
languages, Önge and Jarawa, and one extinct language, Jangil.
  In addition, Sentinelese, an unattested language of the Andaman Islands, is generally considered to
be related and part of the aerial group.

Languages with official status in India

There is no national language in India. The Constitution of India designates 22 official
languages for the Government of India and as Hindi written in the Devanagari script, as well
as English as the official languages of the Union. English or Hindi, is used in official purposes
such as parliamentary proceedings, judiciary, communications between the Central Government
and a State Government. States within India have the liberty and powers to specify their own
official language(s) through legislation and therefore there are 22 officially recognized
languages in India of which Hindi is the most used. The number of native Hindi speakers is
about 25% of the total Indian population; however, including dialects of Hindi termed as Hindi
languages, the total is around 44% of Indians, mostly accounted from the states falling under
the Hindi belt. Other Indian languages are each spoken by around 10% or less of the population.
States specify their own official language(s) through legislation. The section of the
Constitution of India dealing with official languages therefore includes detailed provisions
which deal not just with the languages used for the official purposes of the union, but also with
the languages that are to be used for the official purposes of each state and union territory in the
country, and the languages that are to be used for communication between the union and the
states.
During the British Rule, 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) official languages.

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.
 List of official languages of India
The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 official languages.
The table below lists the 22 official languages of Republic of India set out in the Eighth
Schedule as of May 2008, together with the regions where they are widely spoken and used as
state's official language.

Language Family Speakers Official recognition in State(s)

(in millions, 2011)
Indo-Aryan,
Assamese 15.3 Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
Eastern
Indo-Aryan,
Bengali 97.2 West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand
Eastern
Tibeto-
Bodo 1.48 Assam
Burman
Indo-Aryan,
Dogri 2.6 Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab
Northwestern
Indo-Aryan,
Gujarati 55.5 Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat
Western
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar
Haveli, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal
Hindi Indo-Aryan 528 Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya
Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West
Bengal
Kannada Dravidian 43.7 Karnataka
Indo-Aryan,
Kashmiri 6.8 Jammu and Kashmir
Dardic
Indo-Aryan,
Konkani 2.25 Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala (The Konkan Coast)
Southern
Indo-Aryan,
Maithili 13.6 Bihar, Jharkhand
Eastern
Malayalam Dravidian 34.8 Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Manipuri (also
Tibeto-
Meitei or 1.8 Manipur
Burman
Meithei)
Indo-Aryan,
Marathi 83 Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu
Southern
Indo-Aryan,
Nepali 2.9 Sikkim, Darjeeling, Uttarakhand and some parts of Northeast India
Northern
Indo-Aryan,
Odia 37.5 Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal
Eastern
Indo-Aryan,
Punjabi 33.1 Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal
Northwestern
Sanskrit Indo-Aryan 0.02 Uttarakhand
Spoken by Santhal people mainly in the state of Jharkhand as well as in
the states
Santali Munda 7.3
of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Odisha, Tripura, West
Bengal
Indo-Aryan,
Sindhi 2.7 Sindh (now Sindh in Pakistan)
Northwestern
Tamil Dravidian 69 Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Puducherry
Telugu Dravidian 81.1 Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Language Family Speakers Official recognition in State(s)
(in millions, 2011)
Indo-Aryan, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Jharkhand, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar
Urdu 50.7
Central Pradesh and West Bengal
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: Bhārat Sarkār), often abbreviated as GoI, is
the union government created by the India’s the legislative, executive and judicial authority of the
union of 29 states and seven union territories of a constitutionally democratic republic. It is located
in New Delhi, the capital of India

Basic structure
Modelled after the Westminster system for governing the state, the union government is
mainly composed of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, in which all powers are vested
by the constitution in the prime minister, parliament and the supreme court. The President of
India is the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces whilst
the elected minister acts as the head of the executive, and is responsible for running the union
government. The parliament is bicameral in nature, with the Lok Sabha being the lower house, and
the Rajya Sabha the upper house. The judiciary systematically contains an apex supreme court,
24 high courts, and several district courts, all inferior to the Supreme Court.
The basic civil and criminal laws governing the citizens of India are set down in major
parliamentary legislation, such as the civil procedure code, the penal code, and the criminal
procedure code. Similar to the union government, individual state governments each consist of
executive, legislative and judiciary. The legal system as applicable to the union and individual state
governments is based on the English Common and Statutory Law. The full name of the country is
the Republic of India. India and Bharat are equally official short names for the Republic of India in
the Constitution,and both names appears on legal banknotes, in treaties and in legal cases. The terms
"union government", "central government" and "Bhārata Sarakāra" are often used officially and
unofficially to refer to the Government of India. The term New Delhi is commonly used as
a metonym for the central government, as the seat of government is in New Delhi.

Legislature

Building of the Parliament of India

The powers of the legislature in India are exercised by the Parliament, a bicameral legislature
consisting of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Of the two houses of parliament, the Rajya Sabha
is considered to be the upper house or the Council of States and consists of members appointed by
the president and elected by the state and territorial legislatures. The Lok Sabha is considered
the lower house or the House of the people.
The parliament does not have complete control and sovereignty, as its laws are subject
to judicial review by the Supreme Court. However, it does exercise some control over the executive.
The members of the cabinet, including the prime minister, are either chosen from parliament or
elected thereto within six months of assuming office. The cabinet as a whole is responsible to the
Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha is a temporary house and can be dissolved only when the party in power
loses the support of the majority of the house. The Rajya Sabha is a permanent house and can never
be dissolved. The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected for a six-year term.

Executive
The executive of government is the one that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily
administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government
is central to the republican idea of the separation of powers.
President
The executive power is vested mainly in the President of India, as per Article 53(1) of the
constitution. The president has all constitutional powers and exercises them directly or through
officers subordinate to him as per the aforesaid Article 53(1). The president is to act in accordance
with aid and advice tendered by the prime minister, who leads the council of ministers as described
in Article 74 of the Constitution of India.
The council of ministers remains in power during the 'pleasure' of the president. However, in
practice, the council of ministers must retain the support of the Lok Sabha. If a president were to
dismiss the council of ministers on his or her own initiative, it might trigger a constitutional crisis.
Thus, in practice, the council of ministers cannot be dismissed as long as it holds the support of a
majority in the Lok Sabha.
The president is responsible for appointing many high officials in India. These high officials
include the governors of the 29 states; the chief justice; other judges of the supreme courtand high
courts on the advice of other judges; the Attorney General; the Comptroller and Auditor General;
the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners; the chairman and members of
the Union Public Service Commission; the officers of the All India Services (IAS, IFoS and IPS)
and central civil services in group 'A'; and the ambassadors and high commissioners to other
countries on the recommendations of the cabinet.
The president, as the head of state, also receives the credentials of ambassadors from other
countries, whilst the prime minister, as head of government, receives credentials of high
commissioners from other members of the Commonwealth, in line with historical tradition.
The president is the de jure commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces.
The President of India can grant a pardon to or reduce the sentence of a convicted person for
one time, particularly in cases involving punishment of death. The decisions involving pardoning
and other rights by the president are independent of the opinion of the prime minister or the Lok
Sabha majority. In most other cases, however, the president exercises his or her executive powers
on the advice of the prime minister.
Vice President
The vice president is the second highest constitutional position in India after the president.
The vice president represents the nation in the absence of the president and takes charge as acting
president in the incident of resignation impeachment or removal of the president. The vice president
also has the legislative function of acting as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The vice president is
elected indirectly by members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both the houses
of the parliament in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of
the single transferable vote and the voting is by secret ballot conducted by the election commission.
Prime Minister
The Prime Minister of India, as addressed in the Constitution of India, is the chief of the
government, chief adviser to the president, head of the council of ministers and the leader of the
majority party in the parliament. The prime minister leads the executive of the Government of India.
The prime minister is the senior member of cabinet in the executive of government in a
parliamentary system. The prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet;
allocates posts to members within the Government; is the presiding member and chairman of the
cabinet and is responsible for bringing a proposal of legislation. The resignation or death of the
prime minister dissolves the cabinet.
The prime minister is appointed by the president to assist the latter in the administration of the
affairs of the executive.
Cabinet, Ministries and agencies
The Cabinet of India includes the prime minister and his cabinet ministers. Each minister
must be a member of one of the houses of the parliament. The cabinet is headed by the prime
minister, and is advised by the cabinet secretary, who also acts as the head of the Indian
Administrative Service and other civil services. Other ministers are either as union cabinet
ministers, who are heads of the various ministries; or ministers of state, who are junior members
who report directly to one of the cabinet ministers, often overseeing a specific aspect of
government; or ministers of state (independent charges), who do not report to a cabinet minister. As
per article 88 of the constitution, every minister shall have the right to speak in, and to take part in
the proceedings of, either house, any joint sitting of the houses, and any committee of parliament of
which he may be named a member, but shall not be entitled to a vote in the house where he is not a
member.
Secretaries
A secretary to the Government of India, a civil servant, generally an Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) officer, is the administrative head of the ministry or department, and is the principal
adviser to the minister on all matters of policy and administration within the ministry/department.
Secretaries to the Government of India rank 23rd on Indian order of precedence. Secretaries at the
higher level are assisted by one or many additional secretaries, who are further assisted by joint
secretaries. At the middle they are assisted by directors/deputy secretaries and undersecretaries. At
the lower level, there are section officers, assistant section officers, upper division clerks, lower
division clerks and other secretarial staff.

Judiciary
India's independent union judicial system began under the British, and its concepts and
procedures resemble those of Anglo-Saxon countries. The Supreme Court of India consists of
the chief justice and 30 associate justices, all appointed by the president on the advice of the Chief
Justice of India. The jury trials were abolished in India in the early 1960s, after the famous case KM
Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra, for reasons of being vulnerable to media and public pressure, as
well as to being misled.
 Unlike its United States counterpart, the Indian justice system consists of a unitary system at
both state and union level. The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court of India, high courts at the
state level, and district courts and sessions courts at the district level.

Supreme Court

Building of the Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India is situated in New Delhi, the capital region of India.
The Supreme Court is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under
the Constitution of India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of constitutional review.
Consisting of the Chief Justice of India and 30 sanctioned other judges, it has extensive powers in
the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
As the final court of appeal of the country, it takes up appeals primarily against verdicts of
the high courts of various states of the Union and other courts and tribunals. It
safeguards fundamental rights of citizens and settles disputes between various governments in the
country. As an advisory court, it hears matters which may specifically be referred to it under
the constitution by the president. It also may take cognisance of matters on its own (or 'suo moto'),
without anyone drawing its attention to them. The law declared by the Supreme Court becomes
binding on all courts within India and also by the union and state governments. Per Article 142, it is
the duty of the President to enforce the decrees of the Supreme Court.
In addition, Article 32 of the constitution gives an extensive original jurisdiction to the
Supreme Court in regard to enforcing fundamental rights. It is empowered to issue directions, orders
or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo
warranto and certiorari to enforce them. The Supreme Court has been conferred with power to
direct transfer of any civil or criminal case from one state high court to another state high court, or
from a court subordinate to another state high court and the Supreme Court. Although the
proceedings in the Supreme Court arise out of the judgment or orders made by the subordinate
courts, of late the Supreme Court has started entertaining matters in which interest of the public at
large is involved. This may be done by any individual or group of persons either by filing
a writ petition at the filing counter of the court, or by addressing a letter to the Chief Justice of
India, highlighting the question of public importance for redress. These are known as public interest
litigations.

Elections and Voting

India has a quasi-federal form of government, called "union" or "central" government, with
elected officials at the union, state and local levels. At the national level, the head of government,
the prime minister, is appointed by the President of India from the party or coalition that has the
majority of seats in the Lok Sabha. The members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected for a term of
five years by universal adult suffrage through a first-past-the-post voting system. Members of
the Rajya Sabha, which represents the states, are elected by the members of State legislative
assemblies by proportional representation, except for 12 members who are nominated by the
president.
India is currently the largest democracy in the world, with around 834 million eligible voters, as of
2014.

State and local governments

State governments in India are the governments ruling States of India and the chief
minister heads the state government. Power is divided between union government and state
governments. State government's legislature is bicameral in 7 states and unicameral in the rest.
Lower house is elected with 5 years term, while in upper house 1/3 of the total members in the
house gets elected every 2 years with 6-year term.
Local government function at the basic level. It is the third level of government apart from
union and state governments. It consists of panchayats in rural areas and municipalities in urban
areas. They are elected directly or indirectly by the people.
Ministries and departments of the Government of India
Ministry Department(s)
President's Secretariat
Vice President's Secretariat
Atomic Energy
Prime Minister's Office
Space
Cabinet Secretariat
Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Agricultural Research and Education
Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries
AYUSH
Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Chemicals and Fertilizers Fertilizers
Pharmaceuticals
Civil Aviation
Coal
Commerce
Commerce and Industry
Industrial Policy and Promotion
Posts
Communications
Telecommunications
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Consumer Affairs
Distribution Food and Public Distribution
Corporate Affairs
Culture
Defence
Defence Production
Defence
Defence Research and Development
Ex-servicemen Welfare
Development of North Eastern Region
Drinking Water and Sanitation
Earth Sciences
Electronics and Information Technology
Environment, Forest and Climate Change
External Affairs
Economic Affairs
Finance Expenditure
Financial Services
 Investment and Public Asset Management
Revenue
Food Processing Industries
Health and Family Welfare
Health and Family Welfare
Health Research
Heavy Industries and Public Heavy Industry
Enterprises Public Enterprises
Border Management
Internal Security
Jammu Kashmir Affairs
Home Affairs
Home
Official Language
States
Housing and Urban Affairs
Higher Education
Human Resource Development
School Education and Literacy
Information and Broadcasting
Labour and Employment
Justice
Law and Justice Legal Affairs
Legislative
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Mines
Minority Affairs
New and Renewable Energy
NITI Aayog
Panchayati Raj
Parliamentary Affairs
Personnel and Training
Personnel, Public Grievances and
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances
Pensions
Pension and Pensioners' Welfare
Petroleum and Natural Gas
Power
Railways
Road Transport and Highways
Land Resources
Rural Development
Rural Development
 Biotechnology
Science and Technology Science and Technology
Scientific and Industrial Research
Shipping
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
Social Justice and Empowerment
Social Justice and Empowerment
Statistics and Programme Implementation
Steel
Textiles
Tourism
Tribal Affairs
Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Women and Child Development
Sports
Youth Affairs and Sports
Youth Affairs
Total
Ministries Departments
58 93