The Union Cabinet on Thursday granted the classical language status to Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Pali and Prakrit.
With this, the number of languages under the classification has risen from six to eleven.
In 2004, the Centre created a new category of “classical languages”. Tamil was the first language to be given the title. Other languages that were subsequently added to the list were Sanskrit in 2005, Telugu and Kannada in 2008, Malayalam in 2013 and Odia in 2014.
For a language to be included in the category, it needs to meet a criteria that includes high antiquity of its early texts or recorded history over 1,500 years to 2,000 years, a body of texts written in it that is considered “valuable heritage” and the originality of its literary tradition.
The decision to grant Marathi the status of a classical language comes ahead of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra. The polls are expected to take place this year, but the dates are yet to be announced.
The proposal to confer the status to Marathi was received from the Maharashtra government in 2013, the Centre said in a statement. The proposal was forwarded to the Linguistic Experts Committee.
The committee, which was formed by the Ministry of Culture in November 2004, examines proposals for languages to be given the title of a “classical language”.
“The [committee] recommended Marathi for classical language,” the Centre said in a statement on Thursday. “During the inter-ministerial consultations on the draft note for cabinet in 2017 for conferring classical status to the Marathi language, MHA [home ministry] advised to revise the criteria and make it stricter.”
The prime minister’s office had said that the Ministry of Culture may conduct an exercise to find out how many other languages are likely to become eligible, the statement said.
“In the meantime, proposals from Bihar, Assam and West Bengal were also received advocating the inclusion of Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali,” the statement said. “Accordingly, the five languages were accorded classical language status on Thursday.”
Following the announcement on Thursday, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union information and broadcasting minister, told reporters that the classical languages “serve as a custodian of India’s heritage, embodying the essence of a community’s historical and cultural milestone”.
Following the announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that his “government cherishes and celebrates India’s rich history and culture”.
In a social media post, he said: “We have also been unwavering in our commitment to popularising regional languages. I am extremely glad the Cabinet has decided that Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit will be conferred the status of Classical Languages!”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she was “happy to share that Bengali/Bangla has been finally accorded the status of a classical language” by the Centre.
“We had been trying to snatch this recognition from Ministry of Culture, GOI [Government of India] and we had submitted three volumes of research findings in favour of our contention,” she said on social media. “Union government has accepted our well-researched claim today evening and we finally reach the cultural apex in the body of languages in India.”
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that his party had reiterated its demand for granting Marathi the “classical language” status to several times this year. “On 3rd October, 2024, a few weeks before an imminent defeat in the upcoming Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha Elections, the non-biological PM finally awakens from his long slumber,” he said on social media.
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