Why Does India Have So Many Writing Systems?

India has a lot of languages, and a lot of these languages seem to have their own writing systems. So why are there so many languages in India and Southeast Asia, as compared to somewhere like Europe or China?

MUSIC:
"Monsoon Rain" by Kikoru*
"Every Color in the World" by Taomito*
"Lost and Forgotten" by Jon Sumner*
"A King's Ransom" by Bonnie Grace*
"Bollywood Star" by Jhukane Bada*
"Working It" by Jingle Punks
(*via EpidemicSound)

📖 SOURCES:

Adri Cortesia, Anonymous Freak, Nif Lindsay, Rebanics, Robert Siska, ImNotDonaldTrump, Larry Burch, Tobi Burch-Rates, Up and Atom*

[zachklieman]

When comparing India to Europe, I think it’s worth mentioning that India’s population is almost twice that of Europe

[Thesungod]

you pronounce almost 95% names correctly, thanks for that.

[mysterious]

I am an Indian
from Assam and I speak Assamese ( the eastern most indo european language)
And I belong to a Tibeto-Burman tribe ( Sonowal kachari)
Very proud of my Heritage and my India

[rishikantalamding]

I'm from India's North eastern states, Manipur. We hv our own script, culture, language.... India is much more diverse then these explain.

[paduka]

Thank you India, greet from Indonesia 🇮🇩❤️🇮🇳
Because of you guys, we indonesian has abundant writing systems +- 15 writing systems derived from pallava script
1. Batak Script (North Sumatra) ᯚᯮᯒᯖ᯲ ᯅᯖᯄ᯦᯲
2. Rejang Script (Bengkulu province) ꤼꥈꤽꤳ꥓ ꥆꥈꤾꥈ
3. Ogan script (Bengkulu & South sumatra)
4. Incung script (Jambi Province)
5. Lampung script (Lampung province)
6. Javanese script (Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java) ꦄꦏ꧀ꦱꦫꦗꦮ
7. Sundanese script (West Java) ᮃᮊ᮪ᮞᮛ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ
8. Balinese script (Bali province) ᬳᬓ᭄ᬲᬭᬩᬮᬶ
9. Mbojo script (West Nusa Tenggara)
10. Satera Jontal script (West Nusa Tenggara)
11. Lota Ende script (East Nusa Tenggara)
12. Lontara script (South Sulawesi) ᨕᨔᨑ ᨒᨚ ᨈᨑ
13. Jangang-jangang script (South Sulawesi)
14. Bilang-Bilang script (South Sulawesi)
15. Kawi script (Java island)

[artificialintelligence]

भारतीय भाषाएं
Sanskrit - संस्कृत
Bengali - বাংলা
Gujarati - ગુજરાતી
Kannada - ಕನ್ನಡ
Hindi - हिंदी
Konkani - कोंकणी
Malayalam - മലയാളം
Marathi - मराठी
Nepali - नेपाली
Odia - ଓଡିଆ
Punjabi - ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Sindhi - سنڌي
Tamil - தமிழ்
Telugu - తెలుగు
Urdu - اردو
Assamese - অসমীয়া
Santali - ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ
Lisan Ud-Dawat -
‎لسان دعوۃ البهرة
Meitei- ꯃꯤꯇꯩꯂꯣꯟ
Maithili - 𑒧𑒻𑒟𑒱𑒪𑒲
Kashmiri - كٲشُر
Dogri - ڈوگَرِی
Bodo - बड़
English - English
Khasi - খসি
Persian - فارسی
Marwari - मारवाड़ी
Lepcha - ᰛᰩᰵᰛᰧᰵᰶ
Phake - (တႝ)ၸႃကေ
Ahom - 𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨
Bhojpuri - 𑂦𑂷𑂔𑂣𑂳𑂩𑂲
Saraiki - سرائیکی
Kangri - 𑚊𑚭𑚫𑚌𑚪𑚯
Surjapuri- सुरजापुरी
Magahi - 𑂧𑂏𑂯𑂲
Bagri - बागड़ी
Surgujia- सरगुजिया
Tulu - തുളു
Dhundhari (Jaipuri) - ढूंढाड़ी
Kumaoni - कुमाऊँनी
Nimadi - निमाड़ी
Garhwali - गढ़वळि
Harauti - हाड़ौती
Khortha - खोरठा
Malvi - मालवी
Konkani - कोंकणी
Mewari - मेवाड़ी
Chattisgarhi - छत्तीसगढ़ी
Sadri - सादरी
Bagheli - बघेली
Awadhi - अवधी
Kannauji - कन्नौजी
Bundeli - बुन्देली
Haryanvi - हरयाणवी
Braj Bhasha - ब्रजभाषा
Onge - ॳङे
Sentilenese
Khamti - (တဲး)ၵမ်းတီႈ
Aiton - (တႝ)ဢႝတွꩫ်
Kurukh - कुड़ुख़
Ahirani - अहिराणी
Khari Boli - खड़ी बोली
Sikkimese - འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་
Limbu - ᤕᤠᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴ
Ladakhi- ལ་དྭགས་སྐད་

[HoH]

Answering questions I never knew I had. Great job on the video and use of sounds.

[ankurbhattacharya]

As an Indian, I am super excited about the video. Thanks KhAnubis!

[bikr]

I mean, India has a language for nearly every state, so…
And before anyone argues about this, a lot of a languages are distinct from all other languages (e.g Basque)

[NguyenNguyen-fqov]

0:44 to 0:47 I really love that Nepal part (Nepal flag trying to eat Bhutan flag). Glorious, and meme-worthy material

[agen]

Fun fact: Both Marathi and Maithili which both use the Devanagari script today, used have their own scripts known as the Modi script and Maithili/Tirhuta script, and the modi script was in use as recently as 1917!

[zappzpp]

As a Indian Tamil speaker, this is much interesting to watch! ❤️ Thanks for making this! 🙏
நன்றி!

[nikkifrozen]

Brahmi being derived from Aramaic is not a established fact but just a theory as many differences exist between two. More over 600bce brahmi script has been found.

[aliimran]

My mother is from Kerala and my father is from tamil nadu we shifted to Hyderabad, Telangana later to vizag, Andhra
I can write and read Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit without any mistakes

[cdw]

Im a sinhalese from sri lanka and our language sinhala(සිංහල) is an indo-aryan language having an indo-dravidian script similar to kannada and telugu

[armandeepsingh]

Punjabi has two scripts Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi
Gurmukhi is used in indian part of punjab while Shahmukhi is used in Pakistani part of punjab
Though both have similar pronunciations their writing style is different

[phs]

On south indian side,
He totally brushed over explanation the origins of Kannada and telugu scripts.

And obviously, there are a lot more scripts in india than he described.
Example, the tigalari script. Which my ancestors used to write sanskrit texts. And before that, a common script for Tulu language.
Nowadays, the Tulu people are trying to revive the script, using it in banners hoardings and even temple entrance signs.

It's a descendant of Grantha script.
So, malayalam is a sister script to it. And look very similar.

[divyanshushete]

Before 19th century marathi too had its own script known as "mo(l)dhi" which was given up to make language more easy to print as it had very curved strokes which made it difficult for block printing.

[pankhayanpyar]

FYI, you used wrong Burmese fonts while rendering. It would be မြန်မာဘာသာ and not the other way around.

[Thesungod]

south east asia is also called greater indosphere due to cultural influence.