If you were ever asked this question - "Which is the National Language of India?"
Your answer would probably be – "Hindi".
Nope, your answer is absolutely wrong, because officially and constitutionally India has no any National Language.
In 2009, Suresh Kachhadia filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court for seeking an order to mandatorily print labels and details on manufactured product packages in Hindi script which can provide detailed information like – price, ingredients and date of manufacture. It was intended for letting the consumers know everything about the products which they purchase for consumption. The PIL was aimed towards the Central Government too.
According to the petitioner Suresh Kachhadia, since most of the population already considered Hindi as the National Language of India for its vast usage and is widely understood all over the country, it would be wise to direct every manufacturer to print labels on their products in Hindi language.
After clear researches and studies, the Gujarat High Court announced that – “Although large number of Indian population have already accepted Hindi as a National Language, many people can speak in Hindi and write in Devanagari script, but there is no any official record which suggests that any order or provision has been made to declare Hindi as the National Language of country."
There was no any official notification issued by the Central Government which declares Hindi as the National Language. Even the respected Constitution of India has recognised Hindi only as an official language, and not the National Language.
Many still argue that since Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India almost in every region, it should be declared as the National Language in particular. However, to oppose this, a large section of the population living in the Southern part of India still don’t agree or are ready to accept this declaration. Besides, those people living in the Northeast Indian part also don’t opt to make Hindi as the National Language of India. Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a national language.
At present there are 2 official languages and 22 scheduled languages in India, which have been divided based on their specific locations in different states. They are: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Meitei (Manipuri), Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
According to the Article 343 of the Constitution of India, the 2 official languages are: Hindi in Devanagari script and English.
Therefore as a conclusion, Hindi is only one of the two official languages, beside English, and not the National Language of India.