Question

According to the 2011 census, which is the third most spoken language in India?
1. Telugu
2. Tamil
3. Bengali
4. Marathi

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : Marathi

The correct answer is Marathi.

• According to the 2011 census, Marathi (6.86%) is the third most spoken language in India.
  • Marathi has replaced Telugu as the third most spoken language in the nation.
  • Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly by the Marathi people of Maharashtra, India.
  • It is the official language and co-official language in the Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India.
  • It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.
  • Marathi has the third-largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali.

• Urdu is the 7th most spoken language in India, while Sanskrit was the least spoken of the country’s 22 scheduled languages. ​ 
• According to data on language released by the Union government as part of Census 2011, Hindi is the most spoken language in India.
  • As per data, the percentage of the Indian population with Hindi as their mother tongue has risen to 43.63% from 41.03% in 2001. 
  • Hindi is the mother tongue of 43.63% of Indians, making it the country's most spoken language, followed by Bengali, according to the language data of Census 2011.
• Southern languages such as Telugu (-0.49%), Tamil (-0.21%), Kannada (-0.08%), and Malayalam (-0.33%) are decreasing gradually, over the last decade, according to the data.
• Out of unscheduled languages, the most spoken language was Bhili or Bhilodi, native to Rajasthan with 1.04 crore speakers and is followed by Gondi with 29 lakh speakers.

• Gujarati, with 4.74% speakers, replaced Urdu in the sixth spot.