Official Languages of Puducherry

Puducherry Beach

Puducherry is not unique in the sense of its status in India. It is also unique in the sense of its linguistic profile. When Puducherry joined the Union of India in 1956, French was the official language of the Puducherry.

According to the treaty, "the French language shall remain the official language of the Establishments so long as the elected representatives of the people shall not decide otherwise".

In 1963, through Union Territory 1963 Act, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi and Malayalam became region wise official languages. In 1965, Puducherry made Tamil, Telegu, and Malayalam as the official languages with English as additional official language through The Pondicherry Official Language Act 1965 (Act No. 3 of 1965). However, even this act did not replaced or removed French as the official language of the territory.

The Government of Puducherry still publishes official gazette in French. Thus, Puducherry is the only democratic unit of India which has two European languages as the official language of the state.

Tamil: About 2,20,749 Tamil speakers, mainly concentrated in the district of Puducherry, and Karikal.
Telugu: About 31,362 Telugu speakers, mostly resides in Yanam.
Malayalam: About 36,823 speakers, concentrated in the district of Mahe.
French: About 10000 speakers, lives in Puducherry.