Indian English comprises several dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in the Indian Subcontinent. These dialects evolved during and after the period when Britain exercised colonial rule over India. English is the one of the official languages of India, with about ninety million speakers, according to the 1991 Census of India, but fewer than a quarter of a million people call it their first language.[1] With the exception of some families who communicate primarily in English, as well as members of the relatively small Anglo-Indian community (numbering less than half a million), speakers of Indian English use it as a second or third language, after their indigenous Indian language(s), such as Hindi, Bengali, Telugu,Marathi,Tamil,etc.[2]Several idiomatic forms, derived from Indian literary and vernacular language, also have made their way into Indian English. Despite this diversity, there is general homogeneity in syntax and vocabulary among the varieties of Indian English.
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