The then prevalent classical languages-Sanskrit, Arabic and other indigenous languages suffered a drastic blow with the introduction of ‘ Minute of 1835’ by Thomas Babington Macaulay as it injected English language in the Indian system and it trained the Indians to become hegemonic. Initially, the British experimented with vernacular languages in courts and other Indian matters but later they found it more convenient to switch over to English. Hindi and Urdu started to be used in courts for local residents. Ī few years later (1837), the British settled in India and English language overpowered Persian. Gradually Urdu developed as a confluence of Persian speaking classes/foreigners and Sanskrit speaking locals. At the regional level, local dialects became popular which borrowed words from other main prevalent languages like Persian, Turkish, Arabic, etc. With the arrival of Islamic rulers, the language became Persian in most of the regions of the then India. There are evidences which show that Sanskrit was spoken by elite while the ‘low order’ people used Pali as a means of communication. In ancient India, Sanskrit was the most prevalent language especially during the period of Aryans who introduced it.
Dravidian: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu.
Broadly speaking, there are four major groups of Indian languages: