Explain “linguistic diversity” of India.

The latest information that we have is from the census of India held in 2001. This census recorded more than 1500 distinct languages which people mentioned as their mother tongues. These languages were grouped together under some major languages. For example languages like Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Bundelkhandi, Chhattisgarhi, Rajasthani, Bhili and many others were grouped together under 'Hindi'. Even after this grouping, the Census found 114 major languages. Of these 22 languages are now included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and are therefore, called the 'Scheduled languages'. Others are called 'non-Scheduled' languages. In terms of languages, India is perhaps the most diverse country in the world.
The largest language, Hindi, is the mother tongue of only about 40 per cent Indians. If we add to that all those who knew Hindi as their second or third language, the total number was still less than 50 per cent in 1991. As for English, only 0.02 per cent Indians had recorded it as their mother tongue. Another 11 per cent knew it as second or third language.