Most languages per state

According to The People’s Linguistic Survey of India, Arunachal Pradesh tops the list of states with the most languages, with over 90 variations.

Assam and Orissa feature next. Maharashtra ranks higher than the Hindi belt (made up of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and parts of North and Central India), West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, with 12 varieties of Marathi and 38 other languages spoken by Adivasis, tribals, nomads and other tribes in Maharashtra. The state also managed to keep most of its languages alive because it was insulated from large-scale invasions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Without the fear of plunder, the people survived and their language thrived.

Hindi is replacing local languages even in states like Arunachal Pradesh, but Maharashtra has seen Marathi flourish and with rural and Dalit writers taking to writing in a big way in the 1970s, languages like Paridhi and Keikadi were given an impetus.