The Centre is considering making changes in the criteria for the status of Classical Language based on a report by the Linguistics Expert Committee of the Union Culture Ministry submitted in 2023.
- The new set of criteria will be officially notified by a gazette notification after it is approved by the Union Cabinet.
- The Linguistics Expert Committee: It comprises representatives of the Union Ministries of Home, Culture and four to five linguistic experts at any given time.
- It is chaired by the president of the Sahitya Akademi.
Classical Languages
- A classical language is one that has its own literature and a significant and ancient corpus of written script.
- Present status: India recognises six classical languages ie. Tamil, Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014). It was in 2014 that the government last granted the special tag.
- Tamil was the first language in India to be accorded classical language status in 2004.
- All the Classical Languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
- Criteria for designating the Classical Language Status: The Ministry of Culture offers rules that must be followed in order to be classified as a classical language in India.
- Ancient origin: The language should have high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years.
- Literary heritage: The language should contain a body of ancient literature or texts that is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
- Originality: The literary tradition should be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
- Discontinuity from modern avatars: The said language and literature should be distinct from its modern format with a marked discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
- Benefits of the Special Status: Once a language is notified as a classical language, certain benefits are provided by the Education Ministry to promote it,
- The HRD ministry conducts 2 major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in the said languages.
- A centre of excellence for studies in the classical language is set up
- University Grants Commission is requested to create a certain number of Professional Chairs in Central universities for the languages that get the classical tag.
- The University Grant Commission (UGC) also awards research projects for promoting these languages.
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Demand of Other Languages for Recognition
- Recently, The government of India has decided to include “Farsi” as one of the nine classical languages of India in our New Education Policy
- Demands from Other languages: There have been increasing demands from some States and literary circles to accord classical status to languages such as Marathi, Bengali, Assamese and Maithili.
- The case of Marathi: In 2014, then Maharashtra Chief Minister had constituted a committee comprising Marathi experts under the chairmanship of Prof. Ranganath Pathare and the report was submitted to the Centre
- The Union Culture Minister has informed Parliament in February 2022 that The MInistry of Culture is actively considering a proposal for according classical status to Marathi.
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July 9, 2024