What is the status given to English by the Indian Constitution?

Concept: Articles 343–351 (Part XVII) of the Constitution lay down India's official-language framework. Article 343(1) makes Hindi in the Devanagari script the official language of the Union, and Article 343(3) empowers Parliament to legislate for the continued use of another language for specified official purposes beyond the initial fifteen-year period.

Application: Acting under this power, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963, whose Section 3 continues the use of English alongside Hindi for all official purposes of the Union indefinitely. Standard constitutional-law and competitive-exam reference material (e.g. Testbook, GKToday, ApniLaw) describes this constitutionally-enabled, statutorily-continued position as English's status of Associate Official Language — the label used across Indian polity textbooks and exams for the position Article 343 read with the 1963 Act gives English.

Cross-check — why the other options do not fit:

• “Official Language” is the status Article 343(1) gives to Hindi, not to English.

• The Constitution does not name any language, including Hindi, as the “National Language” of India — a common misconception.

• “Link language” is only an informal description of English's role in inter-state communication; it is not the term used by the Constitution or the Official Languages Act, 1963.

Multiple independent reference sources converge on the same label for this position, confirming Associate Official Language as the standard, best-supported answer among the options offered.