The Republic of India has hundreds of languages. According to the Census of 2001, there are 1,635 rationalized mother tongues and 122 languages with more than 10,000 speakers. During the British Raj, इंग्रजी was the official language. When the Indian Independence Movement gained momentum in the early part of the 20th Century, efforts were undertaken to make Hindustani (an amalgam of हिंदी भाषा and उर्दू भाषा) as a common language to unite various linguistic groups against the British Government. As early as 1918, Mahatma Gandhi established the "Dakshin Bharat हिंदी Prachar Sabha" (Institution for the Propagation of हिंदी in South India). In 1925, the Indian National Congress switched to Hindustani from इंग्रजी for conducting its proceedings. Both Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were supporters of Hindustani and Congress wanted to propagate the learning of Hindustani in non-हिंदी speaking Provinces of India. The idea of making Hindustani or हिंदी the common language, was not acceptable to Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, who viewed it as an attempt to make Tamils subordinate to North India.

पार्श्वभूमी
भाषाविषयक सल्लागार समिती
१९६७ मधील विधेयक
१९६७ चा अधिकृत भाषा (विधेयक) कायदा