• Source:JND
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PM Modi-led Union cabinet on Thursday approved the expansion of the list of languages that have been classified as Classical Languages. With the approval, the list of Classical Languages in India now includes Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages. Now, there are a total of 11 languages in India that have been classified as Classical. Apart from the newly added five languages, Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia already feature in the prestigious category.

Announcing the decision of the Cabinet, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "PM Modi has always focused on Indian languages. Today, five languages Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali have been approved as classical languages."

"This is a historical decision and this decision goes very well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government's philosophy of taking ride in our culture, taking pride in our heritage and taking pride in all the Indian languages and the rich heritage that we have," the I&B Minister added.

According to the official statement, the Maharashtra government in 2013 had proposed to declare the Marathi language as Classical Language. The proposal was forwarded to the Linguistics Experts Committee (LEC), which oversees the criterion to declare a language as Classical. The LEC later recommended in favour of the Marathi language.

During the inter-ministerial consultations on the draft note for cabinet in 2017 for conferring classical status to the Marathi language, the MHA advised revising the criteria and making it stricter. The PMO vide its comment stated that the ministry may conduct an exercise to find out how many other languages are likely to become eligible.

It said that in the meantime, proposals from Bihar, Assam and West Bengal were also received for conferring the status of classical language to Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali. Accordingly, the Linguistics Experts Committee (under Sahitya Akademi) in a meeting on July 25, 2024, unanimously revised the criteria and recommended the inclusion of these five languages.

The Government of India has conferred status of classical languages to Tamil in 2004, Sanskrit in 2005, Telugu in 2008, Kannada in 2008, Malayalam in 2013, and Odia in 2014.

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The approval came ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024, scheduled for later this year. This was a major poll issue in the state. Reacting to the development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar hailed the decision and thanked PM Modi.

"This is a golden letter day. On behalf of the 12 crore people of Maharashtra, I thank PM Modi for this decision,” Fadnavis said, adding that when he was Maharashtra CM, the state government had taken up the issue of the classical language status to Marathi with the Centre.

"The present government, led by Eknath Shinde, also continued efforts in the direction," Fadnavis said. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the decision was "historic", adding the struggle to ensure Marathi gets classical language status was going on for decades.