Original: In the 2001 Census, Telugu had the third largest base of native speakers in India (74 million), after Hindi and Bengali and was awarded the status of classical language in 2008 [ ] .
Simplified: In the 2001 Census, Telugu had the third largest base of native speakers in India (74 million), after Hindi and Bengali. Tamil was accorded the status of classical language by the Government of India in 2002 and had about 60 million native speakers.