The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved conferring the status of classical language to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali.
The decision was made at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"This is a historical decision that aligns perfectly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government's philosophy of taking pride in our culture, our heritage, and all Indian languages, as well as the rich heritage we possess," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a cabinet briefing.
The classical languages serve as custodians of Bharat’s profound and ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community’s historical and cultural milestones, the government stated.
The Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as "classical languages" on October 12, 2004, declaring Tamil as a classical language. Subsequently, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia were also granted classical language status.
A government statement noted that a proposal from the Maharashtra government in 2013 requested classical language status for Marathi, which was forwarded to the Linguistics Experts Committee (LEC). The LEC subsequently recommended Marathi for classical language status.
Assembly elections are due later this year in Maharashtra, and this issue was a major topic in the state.
During the inter-ministerial consultations on the draft note for the cabinet in 2017 regarding the conferral of classical status to the Marathi language, the MHA advised revising the criteria to make it stricter. The PMO, in its comments, stated that the ministry may conduct an exercise to determine how many other languages are likely to become eligible.
In the meantime, proposals from Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal were also received for conferring classical language status to Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali.
Accordingly, the Linguistics Experts Committee (under the Sahitya Akademi) met on July 25, 2024, and unanimously revised the criteria as outlined below. The Sahitya Akademi has been appointed as the nodal agency for the LEC.
The inclusion of languages as classical languages will create significant employment opportunities, particularly in academic and research fields, the government statement said.
Additionally, it stated that the preservation, documentation, and digitization of ancient texts in these languages will generate jobs in archiving, translation, publishing, and digital media.
The primary states involved are Maharashtra (Marathi), Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh (Pali and Prakrit), West Bengal (Bengali), and Assam (Assamese), while the broader cultural and academic impact will extend nationally and internationally.
