Official scripts of India

There are several official scripts of India, which are either used officially by the Union government or by the state governments. The official languages of the Indian Union are Hindi and English, whereas the Devanagari script is used to write Hindi and the Latin script is used for English. Alongside, the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists languages that are officially recognised by the Indian government.^[1] However, the state legislatures are free to adopt by law any languages as official ones.^[2][3]

Devanagari script

The Constitution of India says:

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.

— Part XVII of the Indian Constitution^[4]

Being the official script for Hindi, Devanagari is officially used in the Union Government of India as well as several Indian states where Hindi is an official language, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the Indian union territories of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.^[5] Gujarat^[6][7] and West Bengal also officially use Devanagari, as these two states recognise Hindi as an additional official language.^[8]

The Devanagari script (देवनागरी, romanized: Devanāgarī) is the officially mandated script of the Bodo language in Assam,^[9] the Konkani language in Goa,^[10] and Sanskrit in Himachal Pradesh.^[11]

Gurmukhi script

Not to be confused with Shahmukhi, the Punjabi script used in Punjab, Pakistan.

The Gurmukhi script (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) is the official script for the Punjabi language in Punjab,^[12] and Delhi.^[13]

Meitei script

The Meitei script (Meitei: ꯃꯩꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ, romanized: Meitei mayek) is the officially mandated script for the Meitei language of Manipur,^[14] replacing the Bengali script, albeit with some allowance for parallel use.

Tamil Script

The Tamil script (Tamil: தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி, romanized: Tamiḻ ariccuvaṭi) is the official script for the Tamil language in Tamil Nadu^[15] and Union Territory Puducherry.^[16] Although there is no explicit legal provision defining the Tamil script as the official script, it is implicitly recognised as such since it is used in the formulation of laws and official documents.

See also

• Classical Languages of India
• Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation
• Official Languages Commission
• Part XVII of the Constitution of India