document_title: Languages of India

question_text: 1st indian language to be declared as classical language

question_tokens: 1st indian language to be declared as classical language

text: Languages of India

text: History[edit]

text: The southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family. The Dravidian languages are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[20] Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE.[21] The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui) and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada).[22]

text: The northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indic by way of the Middle Indic Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages. The Indo-Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE) and New Indo-Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE). The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved into distinct, recognisable languages in the New Indo-Aryan Age.[23]

text: Persian or Farsi was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced the art, history and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes, and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari.[14][24]

text: Each of the northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was strongly influenced by Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic,  leading to the emergence of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language.[25][26] Hindi and Urdu are two of India's official languages.

text: Inventories[edit]

text: The first official survey of language diversity in the Indian subcontinent was carried out by Sir George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled the Linguistic Survey of India, it reported a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects.[27] However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in distinguishing between "dialect" and "language",[27] use of untrained personnel and under-reporting of data from South India, as the former provinces of Burma and Madras, as well as the princely states of Cochin, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore were not included in the survey.[28]

text: Different sources give widely differing figures, primarily based on how the terms "language" and "dialect" are defined and grouped. Ethnologue, produced by the Christian evangelist organisation SIL International,  lists 461 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 447 of which are living, while 14 are extinct. The 447 living languages are further subclassified in Ethnologue as follows:-[29][30]

text:
Institutional – 63
Developing – 130
Vigorous – 187
In trouble – 54
Dying – 13

text: The People’s Linguistic Survey of India, a privately owned research institution in India, has recorded over 66 different scripts and more than 780 languages in India during its nationwide survey, which the organisation claims to be the biggest linguistic survey in India.[31]

text: The People of India (POI) project of Anthropological Survey of India reported 325 languages which are used for in-group communication by 5,633 Indian communities.[32]

text: Census of India figures[edit]

text: The Census of India records and publishes data with respect to the number of speakers for languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing between language and mother tongue. The mother tongues are grouped within each language. Many of the mother tongues so defined could be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is especially so for many mother tongues with tens of millions of speakers that are officially grouped under the language Hindi.

text: Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such as East Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, PEPSU, and Bilaspur.[33]

text: The 1961 census recognised 1,652 mother tongues spoken by 438,936,918 people, counting all declarations made by any individual at the time when the census was conducted.[34]  However, the declaring individuals often mixed names of languages with those of dialects, subdialects and dialect clusters or even castes, professions, religions, localities, regions, countries and nationalities.[34] The list therefore includes languages with barely a few individual speakers as well as 530 unclassified mother tongues and more than 100 idioms that are non-native to India, including linguistically unspecific demonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian".[34]

text: The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues.[35] According to the 1991 census, 22 languages had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of a total of 838 million Indians in 1991).[35][36]

text: According to the most recent census of 2001, there are 1635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages.[13] Of these, 29 languages have more than a million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers.[37] There are a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers in Coorg (Kodagu).[38]

text: This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2018)

text: The language-related data results of the 2011 Census have not yet been released by the Government of India.[39]

text: Multilingualism[edit]

text:
First, second, and third languages by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)

Language

 First languagespeakers[40]

First languagespeakers as a percentage
of total population[41]

 Second languagespeakers[42]

 Third languagespeakers[42]

 Total speakers[43][42]

Total speakers as a
percentage of total
population[41]

Hindi Belt languages (Hindustani, Bihari, Rajasthani, &c.)

595 million

50%

105 million

32 million

730 million

60%

English

260,000

0.02%

86 million

38 million

125 million

10%

Bengali

97 million

8%

7 million

1 million

105 million

9%

Marathi

83 million

7%

10 million

3 million

95 million

8%

Telugu

81 million

7%

10 million

1 million

92 million

8%

Tamil

69 million

6%

5 million

1 million

75 million

6%

Kannada

44 million

4%

11 million

1 million

56 million

5%

Gujarati

55 million

5%

3 million

700,000

59 million

5%

Odia

34 million

3%

3 million

300,000

38 million

3%

Malayalam

35 million

3%

500,000

200,000

36 million

3%

Sanskrit

0

0%

1.2 million

3.7 million

5 million

0.4%

text: Language families[edit]

text: Ethnolinguistically, the languages of South Asia, echoing the complex history and geography of the region, form a complex patchwork of language families, language phyla and isolates.[8]:283 The languages of India belong to several language families, the most important of which are :[44]

text:
Indo-Aryan language family
Dravidian language family
Austroasiatic language family
Sino-Tibetan language family
Tai–Kadai language family
Great Andamanese languages

text: Indo-Aryan language family[edit]

text:
The largest of the language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan language family, a branch of the Indo-Iranian family, itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of the Indo-European language family.
This language family predominates, accounting for some 1035 million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, as per 2018 estimate.
The most widely spoken languages of this group are Hindi (or more correctly, Hindustani, which includes Hindi and Urdu), Bengali, Konkani, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Assamese (Asamiya), Maithili and Odia.[45] Aside from the Indo-Aryan languages, other Indo-European languages are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English, as a lingua franca.

text: Dravidian language family[edit]

text: The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family, accounting for some 277 million speakers, or approximately 20.5% as per 2018 estimate The Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.[7] Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such as the Oraon and Gond tribes.[46] Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui in Pakistan and Dhangar, a dialect of Kurukh, in Nepal.[47]

text: Austroasiatic language family[edit]

text: Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous small Sino-Tibetan languages, with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of the population.[48]

text: The Austroasiatic language family (austro meaning South) is the autochthonous language in South Asia and Southeast Asia, other language families having arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages, including Santhali. The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and Santhali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered.[8]:456–457

text: Sino-Tibetan language family[edit]

text: The Sino-Tibetan language family are well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree".[8]:283–5

text: Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken across the Himalayas in the regions of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, and also in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam (hills and autonomous councils),[49][50][51] Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram. Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in India include the scheduled languages Meitei and Bodo, the non-scheduled languages of Karbi, Lepcha, and many varieties of several related Tibetic, West Himalayish, Tani, Brahmaputran, Angami–Pochuri, Tangkhul, Zeme, Kukish language groups, amongst many others.

text: Tai-Kadai language family[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Ahom language, a Southwestern Tai language, had been once the dominant language of the Ahom Kingdom in modern-day Assam, but was later replaced by the Assamese language (known as Kamrupi in ancient era which is the pre-form of the Kamrupi dialect of today). Nowadays, small Tai communities and their languages remain in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh together with Sino-Tibetans, e.g. Tai Phake, Tai Aiton and Tai Khamti, which are similar to the Shan language of Shan State, Myanmar; the Dai language of Yunnan, China; the Lao language of Laos; the Thai language of Thailand; and the Zhuang language in Guangxi, China.

text: Great Andamanese language family[edit]

text: The extinct and endangered languages of the Andaman Islands form a fifth Andamanese- , comprising two families, namely:[52]

text:
the Great Andamanese, comprising a number of extinct languages apart from one highly endangered language with a dwindling number of speakers.
the Ongan family of the southern Andaman Islands, comprising two extant languages, Önge and Jarawa, and one extinct language, Jangil.

text: In addition, Sentinelese, an unattested language of the Andaman Islands, is generally considered to be related and part of the aerial group.[52]

text: Language isolates[edit]

text: The only language found in the Indian mainland that is considered a language isolate is Nihali.[8]:337 The status of Nihali is ambiguous, having been considered as a distinct Austroasiatic language, as a dialect of Korku and also as being a "thieves' argot" rather than a legitimate language.[53][54]

text: The other language isolates found in the rest of South Asia include Burushaski, a language spoken in Gilgit–Baltistan (administered by Pakistan), Kusunda (in western Nepal) and Vedda (in Sri Lanka).[8]:283 The validity of the Great Andamanese language group as a language family has been questioned and it has been considered a language isolate by some authorities.[8]:283[55][56]

text: In addition, a Bantu language, Sidi, was spoken until the mid-20th century in Gujarat.[8]:528

text: Influences[edit]

text: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The language families in India are not necessarily related to the various ethnic groups in India, specifically the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian people. The languages within each family have been influenced to a large extent by both families.

text: Urdu has also had a significant influence on many of today's Indian languages. Many North Indian languages have lost much of their Sanskritised base (50% current vocabulary) to a more Urdu-based form. In terms of the written script, most Indian languages, except the Tamil script, nearly perfectly accommodate the Sanskrit language. South Indian languages have adopted new letters to write various Indo-Aryan based words as well, and have added new letters to their native alphabets as the languages began to mix and influence each other.

text: Though various Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages may seem mutually exclusive when first heard, there is a much deeper underlying influence that both language families have had on each other down to a linguistic science. There is proof of the intermixing of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages through the pockets of Dravidian-based languages on remote areas of Pakistan, and interspersed areas of North India. In addition, there is a whole science regarding the tonal and cultural expression within the languages that are quite standard across India. Languages may have different vocabulary, but various hand and tonal gestures within two unrelated languages can still be common due to cultural amalgamations between invading people and the natives over time; in this case, the Indo-Aryan peoples and the native Dravidian people.

text: Official languages[edit]

text: Federal level[edit]

text: Prior to Independence, in British India, English was the sole language used for administrative purposes as well as for higher education purposes.[57]

text: In 1946, the issue of national language was a bitterly contested subject in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of India, specifically what should be the language in which the Constitution of India is written and the language spoken during the proceedings of Parliament and thus deserving of the epithet "national". Members belonging to the northern parts of India insisted that the Constitution be drafted in Hindi with the unofficial translation in English. This was not agreed to by the drafting Committee on the grounds that English was much better to craft the nuanced prose on constitutional subjects. The efforts to make Hindi the pre-eminent language were bitterly resisted by the members from those parts of India where Hindi was not spoken natively. Eventually, a compromise was reached with Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union but for "fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, the English Language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement".[57]

text: Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India states "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script."[58]:212[59] Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965.[58]:212[59]

text: As the date for changeover approached, however, there was much alarm in the non Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially in Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh. Accordingly, Jawaharlal Nehru ensured the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963,[60][61] which provided that English "may" still be used with Hindi for official purposes, even after 1965.[57] The wording of the text proved unfortunate in that while Nehru understood that "may" meant shall, politicians championing the cause of Hindi thought it implied exactly the opposite.[57]

text: In the event, as 1965 approached, India's new Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri prepared to make Hindi paramount with effect from 26 January 1965. This led to widespread agitation, riots, self-immolations and suicides in Tamil Nadu. The split of Congress politicians from the South from their party stance, the resignation of two Union ministers from the South and the increasing threat to the country's unity forced Shastri to concede.[57][19]

text: As a result, the proposal was dropped,[62][63] and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of the Indian Parliament.[60]

text: The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language.[10][11]

text: Hindi[edit]

text: Hindi, written in Devanagari script, is the most prominent language spoken in the country. In the 2001 census, 422 million (422,048,642) people in India reported Hindi to be their native language.[64] This figure not only included Hindi speakers of Hindustani, but also people who identify as native speakers of related languages who consider their speech to be a dialect of Hindi, the Hindi belt. Hindi (or Hindustani) is the native language of most people living in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.[65]

text: "Modern Standard Hindi", a standardised language is the official language of the Union of India. In addition, it is one of only two languages used for business in Parliament however the Rajya Sabha now allows all 22 official languages on the Eighth Schedule to be spoken.[66]

text: Hindustani, evolved from khari boli (खड़ी बोली), a prominent tongue of Mughal times, which itself evolved from Apabhraṃśa, an intermediary transition stage from Prakrit, from which the major North Indian Indo-Aryan languages have evolved.[citation needed]

text: Varieties of Hindi spoken in India include Rajasthani, Braj Bhasha, Haryanvi, Bundeli, Kannauji, Hindustani, Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Nagpuri and Chhattisgarhi. By virtue of its being a lingua franca, Hindi has also developed regional dialects such as Bambaiya Hindi in Mumbai. In addition, a trade language, Andaman Creole Hindi has also developed in the Andaman Islands.[citation needed]

text: In addition, by use in popular culture such as songs and films, Hindi also serves as a lingua franca across both North and Central India[citation needed]

text: Hindi is widely taught both as a primary language and language of instruction, and as a second tongue in most states.

text: English[edit]

text: British colonial legacy has resulted in English being a language for government, business and education. English, along with Hindi, is one of the two languages permitted in the Constitution of India for business in Parliament. Despite the fact that Hindi has official Government patronage and serves as a lingua franca over large parts of India, there was considerable opposition to the use of Hindi in the southern states of India, and English has emerged as a de facto lingua franca over much of India.[57][19]

text: Scheduled languages[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Until the Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. The Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion of Sindhi, Konkani, Meitei and Nepali, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, as of 1 December 2007, lists 22 languages,[58]:330 which are given in the table below together with the speaking population and the regions where they are used.[64]

text:
Language

Family

Assamese
Indo-Aryan

Bengali (Bangla)
Indo-Aryan

Bodo
Sino-Tibetan

Dogri
Indo-Aryan

Gujarati
Indo-Aryan

Hindi
Indo-Aryan

Kannada
Dravidian

Kashmiri
Indo-Aryan

Konkani
Indo-Aryan

Maithili
Indo-Aryan

Malayalam
Dravidian

Meitei
Sino-Tibetan

Marathi
Indo-Aryan

Nepali
Indo-Aryan

Odia
Indo-Aryan

Punjabi
Indo-Aryan

Sanskrit
Indo-Aryan

Santali
Austroasiatic

Sindhi
Indo-Aryan

Tamil
Dravidian

Telugu
Dravidian

Urdu
Indo-Aryan

text: The individual states, the borders of most of which are or were drawn on socio-linguistic lines, can legislate their own official languages, depending on their linguistic demographics. The official languages chosen reflect the predominant as well as politically significant languages spoken in that state. Certain states having a linguistically defined territory may have only the predominant language in that state as its official language, examples being Karnataka and Gujarat, which have Kannada and Gujarati as their sole official language respectively. Telangana, with a sizeable Urdu-speaking Muslim population, has two languages, Telugu and Urdu, as its official languages.

text: Some states buck the trend by using minority languages as official languages. Jammu and Kashmir uses Urdu, which is spoken by fewer than 1% of the population. Meghalaya uses English spoken by 0.01% of the population. This phenomenon has turned majority languages into "minority languages" in a functional sense.[68]

text: In addition to states and union territories, India has autonomous administrative regions which may be permitted to select their own official language – a case in point being the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam which has declared the Bodo language  as official for the region, in addition to Assamese and English already in use.[69] and Bengali in the Barak Valley,[70] as its official languages.

text: Prominent languages of India[edit]

text: Bengali[edit]

text: Native to the Bengal region, comprising the nation of Bangladesh and the states of West Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley region of Assam. Bengali (also spelt as Bangla: বাংলা) is the fifth most spoken language in the world. After the partition of India (1947), refugees from East Pakistan were settled in Tripura, and Jharkhand and the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There is also a large number of Bengali-speaking people in Maharashtra and Gujarat where they work as artisans in jewellery industries. Bengali developed from Abahatta, a derivative of Apabhramsha, itself derived from Magadhi Prakrit. The modern Bengali vocabulary contains the vocabulary base from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, also borrowings & reborrowings from Sanskrit and other major borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Austroasiatic languages and other languages in contact with. Like most Indian languages, Bengali has a number of dialects. It exhibits diglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language.[71] Bengali language has developed a rich cultural base spanning art, music, literature and religion. There have been many movements in defence of this language and in 1999 UNESCO declared 21 Feb as the International Mother Language Day in commemoration of the Bengali Language Movement in 1952.[72]

text: Marathi[edit]

text: Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language.It is the official language and co-official language in Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India respectively, and is one of the official languages of India. There were 83 million speakers in 2011 and 72 million speakers in 2001.[73] Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India. Marathi has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 1200 AD (Mukundraj's Vivek Sindhu from the close of the 12th century). The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect. There are other related languages such as Khandeshi, Dangi, Vadvali and Samavedi. Malvani Konkani has been heavily influenced by Marathi varieties.Marathi is one of several languages that descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Further change led to the Apabhraṃśa languages like Old Marathi.

text: Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In Goa, Konkani is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for all official purposes.

text: Over a period of many centuries the Marathi language and people came into contact with many other languages and dialects. The primary influence of Prakrit, Maharashtri, Dravidian languages, Apabhraṃśa and Sanskrit is understandable. At least 50% of the words in Marathi are either taken or derived from Sanskrit. Many scholars claim that Sanskrit has derived many words from Marathi. Marathi has also shared directions, vocabulary and grammar with languages such as Indian Dravidian languages, and foreign languages such as Persian, Arabic, English and a little from Portuguese.

text: Telugu[edit]

text: Telugu is the most widely spoken Dravidian language in India. Telugu is an official language in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, making it one of the few languages (along with Hindi, Bengali, and Urdu) with official status in more than one state. It is also spoken by a significant number of people in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat and by the Sri Lankan Gypsy people. It is one of six languages with classical status in India. Telugu ranks fourth by the number of native speakers in India (81 million in the 2011 Census),[73] fifteenth in the Ethnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide and is the most widely spoken Dravidian language.

text: Tamil[edit]

text:
Tamil (also spelt as Thamizh: தமிழ்) is a Dravidian language predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu, Puduchery and many parts of Sri Lanka. It is also spoken by large minorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and throughout the world. Tamil ranks fifth by the number of native speakers in India (61 million in the 2001 Census[74][better source needed]) and ranks 20th in the list of most spoken languages.[citation needed] It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was the first Indian language to be declared a classical language by the Government of India in 2004. Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world.[75][76] It has been described as "the only language of contemporary India which is recognisably continuous with a classical past."[77] The two earliest manuscripts from India,[78][79] acknowledged and registered by UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, are in Tamil.[80]
Tamil is an official language of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is also recognized as minority language in Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa.

text: Urdu[edit]

text: After independence, Modern Standard Urdu,  the Persianised register of Hindustani became the national language of Pakistan. During British colonial times, a knowledge of Hindustani or Urdu was a must for officials. Hindustani was made the second language of British Indian Empire after English and considered as the language of administration. The British introduced the use of Roman script for Hindustani as well as other languages.  Urdu had 70 million speakers in India (as per the Census of 2001), and, along with Hindi, is one of the 22 officially recognised regional languages of India and also an official language in the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana that have significant Muslim populations.

text: Gujarati[edit]

text: Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the west Indian region of Gujarat. Gujarati is part of the greater Indo-European language family. Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati (c. 1100 – 1500 CE), the same source as that of Rajasthani. Gujarati is the chief language in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is also an official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 4.5% of population of India (1.21 billion according to 2011 census) speaks Gujarati. This amounts to 54.6 million speakers in India.[81]

text: Kannada[edit]

text: Kannada language is a Dravidian language which branched off from Kannada-Tamil sub group around 500 B.C.E according to the Dravidian scholar Zvelebil.[82]  According to the Dravidian scholars Steever and Krishnamurthy, the study of Kannada language is usually divided into three linguistic phases: Old (450–1200 CE), Middle (1200–1700 CE) and Modern (1700–present).[83][84] The earliest written records are from the 5th century,[85] and the earliest available literature in rich manuscript (Kavirajamarga) is from c. 850.[86][87] Kannada language has the second oldest written tradition of all vernacular languages of India.[88][89] Current estimates of the total number of epigraph present in Karnataka range from 25,000 by the scholar Sheldon Pollock to over 30,000 by the Sahitya Akademi,[90] making Karnataka state "one of the most densely inscribed pieces of real estate in the world".[91] According to Garg and Shipely, more than a thousand notable writers have contributed to the wealth of the language.[92][93]

text: Malayalam[edit]

text:
Malayalam (/mæləˈjɑːləm/;[94] മലയാളം, Malayāḷam ? [
maləjaːɭəm]) has official language status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people. Malayalam is also spoken in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; with some speakers in the Nilgiris, Kanyakumari and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu, and the Dakshina Kannada and the Kodagu district of Karnataka.[95][96][97] Malayalam originated from Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) in the 7th century.[98] As Malayalam began to freely borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit, the Grantha alphabet was adopted for writing and came to be known as Arya Eluttu.[99] This developed into the modern Malayalam script.[100]

text: Odia[edit]

text: Odia (formerly spelled Oriya)[101] is the only Indian classical language from Indo-Aryan group. Odia is primarily spoken in the Indian state of Odisha and has over 40 million speakers. It was declared as a classical language of India in 2014. Native speakers comprise 91.85% of the population in Odisha. [102][103] Odia is thought to have originated from Udra Prakrit similar to Udra Magadhi, a language spoken in eastern India over 2,500 years ago. The history of Odia language can be divided to Old Odia (3rd century BC –1200 century AD)[104], Early Middle Odia (1200–1400), Middle Odia (1400–1700), Late Middle Odia (1700–1870) and Modern Odia (1870 till present day). The National Manuscripts Mission of India have found around 213,000 unearthed and preserved manuscripts written in Odia.[105]

text: Punjabi[edit]

text: Punjabi, written in the Gurmukhi script in India, is one of the prominent languages of India with about 32 million speakers. In Pakistan it is spoken by over 80 million people and is written in the Shahmukhi alphabet. It is mainly spoken in Punjab but also in neighboring areas. It is an official language of Delhi and Punjab.

text: Assamese[edit]

text: Asamiya or Assamese language is most popular in the state of Assam and Brahmaputra Valley.[106] It's an Eastern Indo-Aryan language having more than 10 million speakers as per world estimates by Encarta.[107]

text: Maithili[edit]

text:
Maithili (/ˈmaɪtɪli/;[108] Maithilī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Bihar and Jharkhand states of India.[109][110]
In Nepal, it is spoken in the eastern Terai, and is the second most prevalent language of Nepal.[111] Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili. Less commonly, it was also written in the local variant of Kaithi.[112] Today it is written in the Devanagari script.[113]

text: In 2003, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as a recognised regional language of India, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.[114]

text: Classical languages of India[edit]

text: In 2004, the Government of India declared that languages that met certain requirements could be accorded the status of a "Classical Language in India".[115]. Over the next few years, several languages were granted the Classical status, and demands have been made for other languages, including Marathi.[116]

text: Languages thus far declared to be Classical:

text:
Tamil (in 2004),[117]
Sanskrit (in 2005),[118]
Kannada (in 2008),[119]
Telugu (in 2008),[119]
Malayalam (in 2013),[120]
Odia (in 2014).[121][122]

text: In a 2006 press release, Minister of Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni told the Rajya Sabha the following criteria were laid down to determine the eligibility of languages to be considered for classification as a "Classical Language",[123]

text: High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500–2000 years; a body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers; the literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community; the classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

text: Benefits[edit]

text: As per Government of India's Resolution No. 2-16/2004-US(Akademies) dated 1 November 2004, the benefits that will accrue to a language declared as a "Classical Language" are:

text:
Two major international awards for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages are awarded annually.
A Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages is set up.
The University Grants Commission will be requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for Classical Languages for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages.[127]

text: Other local languages and dialects[edit]

text: The 2001 census identified the following native languages having more than one million speakers. Most of them are dialects/variants grouped under Hindi.[64]

text:
Languages
No. of native speakers[64]

Bhojpuri
33,099,497

Rajasthani
18,355,613

Magadhi/Magahi
13,978,565

Chhattisgarhi
13,260,186

Haryanvi
7,997,192

Marwari
7,936,183

Malvi
5,565,167

Mewari
5,091,697

Khorth/Khotta
4,725,927

Bundeli
3,072,147

Bagheli
2,865,011

Pahari
2,832,825

Laman/Lambadi
2,707,562

Awadhi
2,529,308

Harauti
2,462,867

Garhwali
2,267,314

Nimadi
2,148,146

Sadan/Sadri
2,044,776

Kumauni
2,003,783

Dhundhari
1,871,130

Tulu
1,722,768

Surgujia
1,458,533

Bagri Rajasthani
1,434,123

Banjari
1,259,821

Nagpuria
1,242,586

Surajpuri
1,217,019

Sylheti
3,612,653

Kangri
1,122,843

text: Practical problems[edit]

text: India has several languages in use; choosing any single language as an official language presents problems to all those whose "mother tongue" is different. However, all the boards of education across India recognise the need for training people to one common language.[128] There are complaints that in North India, non-Hindi speakers have language trouble. Similarly, there are complaints that North Indians have to undergo difficulties on account of language when travelling to South India. It is common to hear of incidents that result due to friction between those who strongly believe in the chosen official language, and those who follow the thought that the chosen language(s) do not take into account everyone's preferences.[129] Local official language commissions have been established and various steps are being taken in a direction to reduce tensions and friction.[citation needed]

text: Language conflicts[edit]

text: There are conflicts over linguistic rights in India. The first major linguistic conflict, known as the Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu, took place in Tamil Nadu against the implementation of Hindi as the official language of India. Political analysts consider this as a major factor in bringing DMK to power and leading to the ousting and nearly total elimination of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu.[130] Strong cultural pride based on language is also found in other Indian states such as Karnataka, Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra. To express disapproval of the imposition of Hindi on its states' people as a result of the central government, the government of Maharashtra made the state languages mandatory in educational institutions.[131]

text: The Government of India attempts to assuage these conflicts with various campaigns, coordinated by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, a branch of the Department of Higher Education, Language Bureau, and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.[clarification needed][citation needed]

text: Writing systems[edit]

text: Most languages in India are written in Brahmi-derived scripts, such as Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,Meitei Mayek, Odia, Eastern Nagari - Assamese/Bengali, etc., though Urdu is written in a script derived from Arabic, and a few minor languages such as Santali use independent scripts.[citation needed]

text: Various Indian languages have their own scripts. Hindi, Marathi, Maithili[132] and Angika are languages written using the Devanagari script. Most major languages are written using a script specific to them, such as Assamese (Asamiya)[133][134][135] with Asamiya,[136] Bengali with Bengali, Punjabi with Gurmukhi,  Meitei with Meitei Mayek, Odia with Odia script, Gujarati with Gujarati, etc. Urdu and sometimes Kashmiri, Saraiki and Sindhi are written in modified versions of the Perso-Arabic script. With this one exception, the scripts of Indian languages are native to India. Languages like Kodava that didn't have a script whereas Tulu which had a script adopted Kannada due to its readily available printing settings; these languages have taken up the scripts of the local official languages as their own and are written in the Kannada script.[137]

text:
Tamil-Brahmi inscription in Jambaimalai.

Silver coin issued during the reign of Rudra Singha with Assamese inscriptions.

North Indian Brahmi found in Ashok pillar.

The Halmidi inscription, the oldest known inscription in the Kannada script and language. The inscription is dated to the 450 CE - 500 CE period.

An early Telugu inscription found in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.


document_title: United States in World War I

question_text: who did america fight during world war 1

root

text: United States in World War I

text: Entry[edit]

text: The American entry into World War I came in April 1917, after more than two and a half years of efforts by President Woodrow Wilson to keep the United States out of the war. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British, American public opinion reflected that of the president: the sentiment for neutrality was particularly strong among Irish Americans, German Americans and Scandinavian Americans,[3] as well as among church leaders and among women in general. On the other hand, even before World War I had broken out, American opinion had been more negative toward Germany than towards any other country in Europe.[4] Over time, especially after reports of atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, the American people increasingly came to see Germany as the aggressor in Europe.

tag: p

text: As U.S. President, it was Wilson who made the key policy decisions over foreign affairs: while the country was at peace, the domestic economy ran on a laissez-faire basis, with American banks making huge loans to Britain and France — funds that were in large part used to buy munitions, raw materials and food from across the Atlantic. Until 1917, Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war and kept the United States Army on a small peacetime footing, despite increasing demands for enhanced preparedness. He did however expand the United States Navy.

text: In 1917, with Russia experiencing political upheaval following widespread disillusionment there over the war, and with Britain and France low on credit, Germany appeared to have the upper hand in Europe,[5] while the Ottoman Empire clung to its possessions in the Middle East. In the same year, Germany decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare against any vessel approaching British waters; this attempt to starve Britain into surrender was balanced against the knowledge that it would almost certainly bring the United States into the war. Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British Intelligence. Publication of that communique outraged Americans just as German U-boats started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.[6] On December 7, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary.[7][8] U.S. troops began arriving on the Western Front in large numbers in 1918.

text: Neutrality[edit]

text: After the war began in 1914, the United States proclaimed a policy of neutrality despite president Woodrow Wilson's antipathies against Germany. Early in the war, the United States started to favor the British and their allies.[9] President Wilson aimed to broker a peace and sent his top aide, Colonel House, on repeated missions to the two sides, but each remained so confident of victory that they ignored peace proposals.

text: When the German U-boat U-20 sank the British liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 with 128 US citizens aboard, Wilson demanded an end to German attacks on passenger ships, and warned that the US would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of international law and of human rights.[citation needed] Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, resigned, believing that the President's protests against the German use of U-boat attacks conflicted with America's official commitment to neutrality. On the other hand, Wilson came under pressure from war hawks led by former president Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as "piracy",[10] and from British delegations under Cecil Spring Rice and Sir Edward Grey.

text: U.S. Public opinion reacted with outrage to the suspected German sabotage of Black Tom in Jersey City, New Jersey on 30 July 1916, and to the Kingsland explosion on 11 January 1917 in present-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey.[11]

text: Crucially, by the spring of 1917 President Wilson's official commitment to neutrality had finally unraveled. Wilson realized he needed to enter the war in order to shape the peace and implement his vision for a League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference.[12]

text: Public opinion[edit]

text: American public opinion was divided, with most Americans until early 1917 largely of the opinion that the United States should stay out of the war. Opinion changed gradually, partly in response to German actions in Belgium and the Lusitania, partly as German Americans lost influence, and partly in response to Wilson's position that America had to play a role to make the world safe for democracy.[13]

text: In the general public, there was little if any support for entering the war on the side of Germany. The great majority of German Americans, as well as Scandinavian Americans, wanted the United States to remain neutral; however, at the outbreak of war, thousands of US citizens had tried to enlist in the German army.[14][15] The Irish Catholic community, based in the large cities and often in control of the Democratic Party apparatus, was strongly hostile to helping Britain in any way, especially after the Easter uprising of 1916 in Ireland.[16] Most of the Protestant church leaders in the United States, regardless of their theology, favoured pacifistic solutions whereby the United States would broker a peace.[17] Most of the leaders of the women's movement, typified by Jane Addams, likewise sought pacifistic solutions.[18] The most prominent opponent of war was industrialist Henry Ford, who personally financed and led a peace ship to Europe to try to negotiate among the belligerents; no negotiations resulted.[19]

text: Britain had significant support among intellectuals, Yankees, and families with close ties to Britain.[20] The most prominent leader was Samuel Insull of Chicago, a leading industrialist who had emigrated from England. Insull funded many propaganda efforts, and financed young Americans who wished to fight by joining the Canadian military,[21] Canada at that time being a Dominion of the British Empire.[22]

text: Preparedness movement[edit]

text: By 1915, Americans were paying much more attention to the war. The sinking of the Lusitania aroused furious denunciations of German brutality.[citation needed] By 1915, in Eastern cities a new "Preparedness" movement emerged. It argued that the United States needed to build up immediately strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that America would fight sooner or later. The driving forces behind Preparedness were all Republicans, notably General Leonard Wood, ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, and former secretaries of war Elihu Root and Henry Stimson; they enlisted many of the nation's most prominent bankers, industrialists, lawyers and scions of prominent families. Indeed, there emerged an "Atlanticist" foreign policy establishment, a group of influential Americans drawn primarily from upper-class lawyers, bankers, academics, and politicians of the Northeast, committed to a strand of Anglophile internationalism.[23]

text: The Preparedness movement had what political scientists call a "realism" philosophy of world affairs—they believed that economic strength and military muscle were more decisive than idealistic crusades focused on causes like democracy and national self-determination. Emphasizing over and over the weak state of national defences, they showed that the United States' 100,000-man Army, even augmented by the 112,000-strong National Guard, was outnumbered 20 to one by the German army; similarly in 1915, the armed forces of Great Britain and the British Empire, France, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Belgium, Japan and Greece were all larger and more experienced than the United States military.[24]

text: They called for UMT or "universal military service" under which the 600,000 men who turned 18 every year would be required to spend six months in military training, and then be assigned to reserve units. The small regular army would primarily be a training agency. Public opinion, however, was not willing to go that far.[25]

text: Both the regular army and the Preparedness leaders had a low opinion of the National Guard, which it saw as politicized, provincial, poorly armed, ill trained, too inclined to idealistic crusading (as against Spain in 1898), and too lacking in understanding of world affairs. The National Guard on the other hand was securely rooted in state and local politics, with representation from a very broad cross section of the US political economy. The Guard was one of the nation's few institutions that (in some northern states) accepted black men on an equal footing with white men.

text: Democrats respond[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: The Democratic party saw the Preparedness movement as a threat. Roosevelt, Root and Wood were prospective Republican presidential candidates. More subtly, the Democrats were rooted in localism that appreciated the National Guard, and the voters were hostile to the rich and powerful in the first place. Working with the Democrats who controlled Congress, Wilson was able to sidetrack the Preparedness forces. Army and Navy leaders were forced to testify before Congress to the effect that the nation's military was in excellent shape.

text: In reality, neither the US Army nor US Navy was in shape for war in terms of manpower, size, military hardware or experience. The Navy had fine ships but Wilson had been using them to threaten Mexico, and the fleet's readiness had suffered. The crews of the Texas and the New York, the two newest and largest battleships, had never fired a gun, and the morale of the sailors was low. The Army and Navy air forces were tiny in size. Despite the flood of new weapons systems unveiled in the war in Europe, the Army was paying scant attention. For example, it was making no studies of trench warfare, poison gas or tanks, and was unfamiliar with the rapid evolution of Aerial warfare. The Democrats in Congress tried to cut the military budget in 1915. The Preparedness movement effectively exploited the surge of outrage over the "Lusitania" in May 1915, forcing the Democrats to promise some improvements to the military and naval forces. Wilson, less fearful of the Navy, embraced a long-term building program designed to make the fleet the equal of the British Royal Navy by the mid-1920s, although this would not come to pass until after World War II.[26] "Realism" was at work here; the admirals were Mahanians and they therefore wanted a surface fleet of heavy battleships second to none—that is, equal to Great Britain. The facts of submarine warfare (which necessitated destroyers, not battleships) and the possibilities of imminent war with Germany (or with Britain, for that matter), were simply ignored.

text: Wilson's decision touched off a firestorm.[27] Secretary of War Lindley Garrison adopted many of the proposals of the Preparedness leaders, especially their emphasis on a large federal reserves and abandonment of the National Guard. Garrison's proposals not only outraged the provincial politicians of both parties, they also offended a strongly held belief shared by the liberal wing of the Progressive movement, that was, that warfare always had a hidden economic motivation. Specifically, they warned the chief warmongers were New York bankers (such as J. P. Morgan) with millions at risk, profiteering munition makers (such as Bethlehem Steel, which made armour, and DuPont, which made powder) and unspecified industrialists searching for global markets to control. Antiwar critics blasted them. These selfish special interests were too powerful, especially, Senator La Follette noted, in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. The only road to peace was disarmament in the eyes of many.

text: National debate[edit]

text: Garrison's plan unleashed the fiercest battle in peacetime history over the relationship of military planning to national goals. In peacetime, War Department arsenals and Navy yards manufactured nearly all munitions that lacked civilian uses, including warships, artillery, naval guns, and shells. Items available on the civilian market, such as food, horses, saddles, wagons, and uniforms were always purchased from civilian contractors.

text: Peace leaders like Jane Addams of Hull House and David Starr Jordan of Stanford University redoubled their efforts, and now turned their voices against the President because he was "sowing the seeds of militarism, raising up a military and naval caste." Many ministers, professors, farm spokesmen and labor union leaders joined in, with powerful support from a band of four dozen southern Democrats in Congress who took control of the House Military Affairs Committee. Wilson, in deep trouble, took his cause to the people in a major speaking tour in early 1916, a warm-up for his reelection campaign that fall.

text: Wilson seemed to have won over the middle classes, but had little impact on the largely ethnic working classes and the deeply isolationist farmers. Congress still refused to budge, so Wilson replaced Garrison as Secretary of War with Newton Baker, the Democratic mayor of Cleveland and an outspoken opponent of preparedness.[28] The upshot was a compromise passed in May 1916, as the war raged on and Berlin was debating whether America was so weak it could be ignored. The Army was to double in size to 11,300 officers and 208,000 men, with no reserves, and a National Guard that would be enlarged in five years to 440,000 men. Summer camps on the Plattsburg model were authorized for new officers, and the government was given $20 million to build a nitrate plant of its own. Preparedness supporters were downcast, the antiwar people were jubilant. The United States would now be too weak to go to war. Colonel Robert L. Bullard privately complained that "Both sides [Britain and Germany] treat us with scorn and contempt; our fool, smug conceit of superiority has been exploded in our faces and deservedly.".[29] The House gutted the naval plans as well, defeating a "big navy" plan by 189 to 183, and scuttling the battleships. The battle of Jutland (May 31/June 1, 1916) saw the main German High Seas Fleet engage in a monumental yet inconclusive clash with the far stronger Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy. Arguing this battle proved the validity of Mahanian doctrine, the navalists took control in the Senate, broke the House coalition, and authorized a rapid three-year buildup of all classes of warships.[citation needed] A new weapons system, naval aviation, received $3.5 million, and the government was authorized to build its own armour-plate factory. The very weakness of American military power encouraged Berlin to start its unrestricted submarine attacks in 1917. It knew this meant war with America, but it could discount the immediate risk because the US Army was negligible and the new warships would not be at sea until 1919 by which time the war would be over, Germany thought, with Germany victorious. The notion that armaments led to war was turned on its head: refusal to arm in 1916 led to war in 1917.

text: War declared[edit]

text: In January 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. The German Foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann invited revolution-torn Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally against the United States in the Zimmermann Telegram. In return, the Germans would send Mexico money and help it recover the territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona that Mexico lost during the Mexican–American War 70 years earlier.[30] British intelligence intercepted the telegram and passed the information on to Washington. Wilson released the Zimmerman note to the public and Americans saw it as a casus belli—a cause for war.

text: At first, Wilson tried to maintain neutrality while fighting off the submarines by arming American merchant ships with guns powerful enough to sink German submarines on the surface (but useless when the U-boats were under water). After submarines sank seven US merchant ships, Wilson finally went to Congress calling for a declaration of war on Germany, which Congress voted on April 6, 1917.[31]

text: As a result of the Russian February Revolution in 1917, the Tsar abdicated and was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government. This helped overcome Wilson's reluctance to having the US fight alongside a country ruled by an absolutist monarch. Pleased by the Provisional Government's pro-war stance, the US accorded the new government diplomatic recognition on March 9, 1917.[32]

text: Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[33] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 7, 1917,[34] but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various co-belligerents allied with the Central Powers.[35] Thus, the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

text: Home front[edit]

text: The home front saw a systematic mobilization of the entire population and the entire economy to produce the soldiers, food supplies, munitions, and money needed to win the war. Although the United States entered the war in 1917, there had been very little planning, or even recognition of the problems that the British and other Allies had to solve on their home fronts. As a result, the level of confusion was high in the first 12 months, then efficiency took control.[36]

text: The war came in the midst of the Progressive Era, when efficiency and expertise were highly valued. Therefore, the federal government set up a multitude of temporary agencies with 500,000 to 1,000,000 new employees to bring together the expertise necessary to redirect the economy into the production of munitions and food necessary for the war, as well as for propaganda purposes.[37]

text: Food[edit]

text: The United States Food Administration under Herbert Hoover launched a massive campaign to teach Americans to economize on their food budgets and grow victory gardens in their backyards, where crops were produced for US soldiers. It managed the nation's food distribution and prices.[38]

text: Propaganda[edit]

text: Crucial to US participation was the sweeping domestic propaganda campaign executed by the Committee on Public Information, overseen by George Creel.[39] The campaign consisted of tens of thousands of government-selected community leaders giving brief carefully scripted pro-war speeches at thousands of public gatherings.[40][41] Along with other branches of government and private vigilante groups like the American Protective League, it also included the general repression and harassment of people either opposed to American entry into the war or of German heritage.[42] Rumors about a German-induced attempt to start uprising among Black Americans caused a wave of lynchings to occur in the Southern United States.[43] Other forms of propaganda included newsreels, photos, large-print posters (designed by several well-known illustrators of the day, including Louis D. Fancher and Henry Reuterdahl), magazine and newspaper articles, and billboards.[44]

text: Children[edit]

text: The nation placed a great importance on the role of children, teaching them patriotism and national service and asking them to encourage war support and educate the public about the importance of the war. The Boy Scouts of America helped distribute war pamphlets, helped sell war bonds, and helped to drive nationalism and support for the war.[45]

text: Army and Navy[edit]

text: As late as 1917, the United States maintained only a small army, one which was in fact smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 4 million men into military service.[46] By the summer of 1918, about 2 million US soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily.[47] In 1917, Congress gave US citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end, Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before US troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.[48]

text: The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted US units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The US rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up US units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.[49]

text: Impact of US forces on the war[edit]

text: On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically greeted the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day,[47] at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. The Americans won a victory at Cantigny, then again in defensive stands at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood. The Americans helped the British Empire, French and Portuguese forces defeat and turn back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), and most importantly, the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh US troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.[50][51]

text: After the war[edit]

text: The government promptly cancelled wartime contracts, ended the draft, and started to bring home its troops from Europe as fast as transport became available.[52] However there was no GI Bill or financial or educational benefits for veterans, and the lack became a major political issue, especially for the large veterans' groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the new American Legion.[53] The readjustment period was marked by soaring unemployment, massive strikes, and race riots in 1919. The public demanded a return to "normalcy," and repudiated Wilson with the election of conservative Republican Warren G. Harding.[54]?


document_title: The Beatles in the United States

question_text: where did the beatles first perform in america

text: The Beatles in the United States

text: Background[edit]

text: Impact of Beatlemania[edit]

text: In the United Kingdom, the Beatles had experienced popularity since the start of 1963. But in the United States, Capitol Records, owned by the band's record company EMI, had for most of the year declined to issue any of the singles.[5] The phenomenon of Beatlemania in the UK was regarded with amusement by the U.S. press, once it made any comment.[6] When newspaper and magazine articles did begin to appear towards the end of 1963, they cited the English stereotype of eccentricity, reporting that the UK had developed an interest in something that had come and gone a long time ago in the United States: rock and roll.[6] Headlines included "The New Madness"[7] and "Beatle Bug Bites Britain",[6] and writers employed word-play linking "beetle" with the "infestation" afflicting the UK.[6] In late 1963, Capitol Records agreed to release the single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with a large accompanying promotional campaign, due to Ed Sullivan's agreement to headline the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.[8] The Beatles' American television debut was on 18 November 1963 on The Huntley-Brinkley Report, with a four-minute long piece by Edwin Newman.[9] On 22 November 1963, the CBS Morning News ran a five-minute feature on Beatlemania in the UK which heavily featured their then current UK hit "She Loves You". The evening's scheduled repeat was cancelled following the assassination of John F. Kennedy the same day. On 10 December, Walter Cronkite decided to transmit the piece again on the CBS Evening News,[10] and the resulting interest led to the rush-release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and—only weeks before the Beatles' arrival—a U.S. commercial breakthrough.[1]

text: American political climate, early 1964[edit]

text: Eleven weeks before the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The nation was in mourning, in fear, and in disbelief.[11] The assassination came after a fifteen-year build-up of Cold War tension. The motivation and identity of the assassin would be doubted by many Americans for decades, despite the Warren Commission's issued report in September 1964.[12] As the United States tried to restore a sense of normality, teenagers in particular struggled to cope, as their disbelief began to be replaced by a personal reaction to what had happened: in school essays, teenagers wrote that "then it became real", and "I was feeling the whole world is going to collapse on me", and "I never felt so empty in all my life".[13]

text: Musical influences[edit]

text: The music industry in Memphis had large role in bringing bands to the attention of the American public,[14] and in the 1960s, many British bands, among them the Beatles, aspired to emulate the sounds of Memphis musicians including Elvis Presley—without whom, according to Lennon, "there would not have been the Beatles".[15] The sudden popularity of the Beatles, and the British Invasion triggered by their arrival, became a major new influence in the United States, which not only established the popularity of British bands, but also affected the musical style of U.S. bands[16]—including those subsequently formed in Memphis.[17][18]

text: During their U.S. tours, the Beatles were introduced to both Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan.[19] Strongly influenced by Presley since before their formation, the band had tried to meet him in the past, but arrangements had fallen through.[20] At Presley's suggestion, guitars were set up in his living room and the gathering played music for an hour, following which they discussed the music business and exchanged anecdotes.[21] The other meeting, with Dylan, influenced the music subsequently produced by the Beatles as well as shaping Dylan's own musical style.[22] This was made evident both in Dylan's controversial adoption of electric guitar, and in changes that were apparent in Lennon's vocal and guitar-playing styles.[22]

text: However, before their visits to United States in 1964 the Beatles still doubted that they could bring anything new to the country. In apprehensive conversation among the Beatles on board the aircraft to New York February 1964, McCartney had questioned, "They've got their own groups. What are we going to give them that they don't already have?"[23]

text: Live performances[edit]

text: February 1964 – First U.S. Concerts[edit]

text: An estimated four thousand Beatles' fans were present on 7 February 1964 as Pan Am Flight 101 left Heathrow Airport.[1] Among the passengers were the Beatles, on their first trip to the United States as a band, with their entourage of photographers and journalists, and Phil Spector.[24] When the group arrived at New York's newly renamed John F. Kennedy Airport, they were greeted by a second large crowd, with Beatles fans again estimated to number four thousand, and journalists, two hundred.[25] From having so many people packed in a little space, a few people in the crowd got injured. The airport had not previously experienced such a large crowd.[26]

text: After a press conference, where they first met disc jockey Murray the K, the Beatles were put into limousines—one per Beatle[27]—and driven to New York City. On the way, McCartney turned on a radio and listened to a running commentary: "They have just left the airport and are coming to New York City..."[28] After reaching the Plaza Hotel, the Beatles were besieged by fans and reporters. Harrison had a fever of 102 °F (39 °C) the next day and was ordered to stay in bed, so Neil Aspinall, the band's personal assistant, replaced Harrison on guitar during the Beatles' first rehearsal for The Ed Sullivan Show.[29] On 9 February 1964, the Beatles made their first live U.S. television appearance.[30] 73 million viewers—about two-fifths of the total American population—watched the group perform on The Ed Sullivan Show at 8 P.M.[31] According to the Nielsen ratings audience measurement system, the show had the largest number of viewers that had been recorded for a U.S. television program.[32]

text: Two days after the television appearance, on 11 February 1964, the Beatles' first U.S. concert took place, at Washington Coliseum, a sports arena in Washington, D.C.[33] The concert was attended by eight thousand fans. The Beatles performed on a central stage in the arena, with the audience on all sides, and there were regular pauses to enable the band to turn their equipment around and perform facing in another direction.[33] The concert generated intense excitement.[33] The following day, the Beatles performed a second concert, in Carnegie Hall, New York, which was attended by two thousand fans.[33] The concert was again well received.[33] Following the Carnegie Hall concert, the Beatles flew to Miami Beach and on Sunday 16 February 1964 made their second television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which this time was broadcast live from the Napoleon Ballroom of the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. As it had done on 9 February, the television broadcast attracted around 70 million viewers.[33] On 22 February 1964, the Beatles returned to the UK. Arriving at Heathrow airport at 7 am, they were met by an estimated ten thousand fans.[33]

text: August 1964 – First U.S. Tour[edit]

text: In August 1964, the Beatles returned to the United States for a second visit, this time remaining for a month-long tour.[34] Epstein was unsure about the group's popularity in the US, and avoided booking them into stadiums. At the opening date at the Cow Palace, San Francisco on August 19, over 17,000 fans turned out to see the group.[35]

text: A request was received from the White House press office, which asked for the Beatles to be photographed with the new President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, laying a wreath on the grave of John F. Kennedy. The request was politely declined by Epstein,[36] as it was not the group's policy to accept "official" invitations.[37] During the tour, the Beatles performed at thirty concerts, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York, twenty-three cities in all.[34] One of the major stipulations for the tour was that the band would not perform for segregated audiences or at venues that excluded African Americans.[38]

text: At each venue, the concert was treated as a major event by the local press and attended by between ten and twenty thousand fans, whose enthusiastic response to the Beatles produced sound levels that left the music only semi-audible.[34] The tour earned the Beatles over a million dollars in ticket sales.[34] It also stimulated a further increase in record sales, and resulted in the sale of a considerable quantity of Beatle-related merchandise.[34]

text: By this point in the year, the British Invasion—started by the Beatles' previous U.S. visit—was gathering momentum, and several more UK acts had come to the United States, including The Dave Clark Five, Billy J. Kramer, and Gerry & the Pacemakers.[36][39] One third of all U.S. top ten hits in 1964 were by British acts.[40] After the tour's final concert in New York, the Beatles were introduced to Bob Dylan, a meeting brought about at the instigation of the New York journalist Al Aronowitz, who arranged for Dylan to visit the Beatles at their hotel before they returned to the UK.[22]

text: August 1965 – Second U.S. Tour[edit]

text: In June 1965, after completing a two-week European tour of France, Italy and Spain, the Beatles attended the London premiere of Help!, their second film, and then returned to the United States for another two-week tour.[41] The tour commenced at Shea Stadium, New York City on Sunday 15 August 1965. The circular stadium had been constructed the previous year, opening on 17 April 1964, with seating arranged in four ascending decks, all of which were filled for the concert.[41] It was the first time in history that a large outdoor stadium had been used for such a purpose, and the event sold out in seventeen minutes.[42]

text: The 1965 tour was highly successful, with well-attended concerts on each of its ten dates.[41] The opening concert at Shea Stadium attracted an audience of fifty-five thousand, the largest of any live concert that the Beatles would perform.[41] The band arrived by armoured car.[41] After the 1965 tour's final concert, which took place at Cow Palace, San Francisco, the Beatles accepted an invitation to visit Elvis Presley before returning to the UK.[19]

text: August 1966 – Third U.S. Tour[edit]

text: Following the UK and U.S. releases of their new album Revolver in August 1966, the Beatles returned to the United States for what would be their last tour.[43] The tour coincided with a storm of U.S. public protest against the Beatles, caused by a published quote from a remark Lennon had made about Christianity.[44][45] Because of the severity of the protests, which included Beatles' records being publicly burned and claims being made that the Beatles were "anti-Christ",[44] Epstein had considered cancelling the fourteen-concert tour, fearing for their lives.[43] Nevertheless, the tour went ahead.

text: In Memphis, the city council decided not to let "municipal facilities be used as a forum to ridicule anyone's religion", and voted to cancel their Beatles concert,[44] although it did in fact take place.[43] There were disturbances during the tour, and one performance was brought to a temporary halt when a member of the audience threw a firecracker, leading the Beatles to believe they were being shot at.[43] In other incidents, telephone threats were received, and the Ku Klux Klan picketed the Beatles' concerts.[43] The tour ended with a concert at Candlestick Park.[43] Although commercially successful, the tour had been affected by the prevailing mood of controversy, and there had been rows of empty seats at some venues.[46]

text: After the United States[edit]

text: The Beatles' arrival in the United States in 1964 marked the spread of Beatlemania from the UK to the wider world, established the group's international stature,[1] and, triggering the British Invasion, caused changes in U.S. popular culture.[2] The Candlestick Park concert at the close of the 1966 U.S. tour marked the end of a four-year period dominated by touring and concerts, including nearly sixty U.S. appearances,[33][47] and over one thousand four hundred internationally.[46] The Beatles, from the end of their 1966 U.S. tour until their break-up in 1970, gave no further commercial concerts, instead devoting their efforts to creating new material in the recording studio.[4]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Pawlowski 1990, p. 175.
^ Jump up to: a b c Leopold, Todd (10 February 2004). "When The Beatles hit America". CNN.
Jump up ^ Palmer 1982, p. 146.
^ Jump up to: a b Miles 1997, pp. 293-295.
Jump up ^ Harry 2000, p. 225.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Gould 2008, pp. 1-2.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 196.
Jump up ^ Stark, Steven D. (18 May 2006). Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band That Shook Youth, Gender, and the World. HarperCollins. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-06-000893-2. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
Jump up ^ "The Daily Nightly - Being for the benefit of Mr. (Cron)Kite". Dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com. 18 November 1963. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
Jump up ^ "Remembering Walter Cronkite". CBS News. 19 July 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, pp. 216-219.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 258.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 217.
Jump up ^ Jovanovic 2004, p. 5.
Jump up ^ Harry 2000, p. 881.
Jump up ^ Jovanovic 2004, pp. 14-15.
Jump up ^ Jovanovic 2004, pp. 11-13.
Jump up ^ Jovanovic 2004, p. 30.
^ Jump up to: a b Gould 2008, pp. 283-284.
Jump up ^ Harry 2000, pp. 881-882.
Jump up ^ Harry 2000, pp. 882-883.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gould 2008, pp. 252-253.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 221.
Jump up ^ Spitz 2005, p. 458.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 1.
Jump up ^ Spitz 2005, p. 459.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 3.
Jump up ^ Spitz 2005, p. 462.
Jump up ^ Spitz 2005, p. 464.
Jump up ^ Gilliland 1969, show 28.
Jump up ^ Kozinn, Alan (6 February 2004). "Critic's Notebook; They Came, They Sang, They Conquered". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, p. 4.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Gould 2008, pp. 5-6.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Gould 2008, p. 249.
Jump up ^ "The Beatles kick off first U.S. tour at San Francisco's Cow Palace". history.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b Gould 2008, p. 250.
Jump up ^ Spitz 2005, p. 620.
Jump up ^ "The Beatles banned segregated audiences, contract shows". BBC News. 18 September 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
Jump up ^ Gilliland 1969, show 29.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, pp. 250-251.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Gould 2008, p. 281.
Jump up ^ Badman 1999, p. 193.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Gould 2008, pp. 346-347.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gould 2008, pp. 340-341.
Jump up ^ Gilliland 1969, show 39.
^ Jump up to: a b Gould 2008, p. 347.
Jump up ^ Gould 2008, pp. 249-281.

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