Introduction

• In a significant move to deepen cultural ties, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that the Centre has decided to include Farsi (Persian) as one of the nine classical languages in India under the New Education Policy.

Classical Languages in India

• As of now, India recognizes six languages as classical, including Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
• In addition to these classical languages Pali, Persian, and Prakrit and their works of literature are to be preserved according to India’s National Education Policy-2020.
• The addition of Farsi (Persian) brings the total to nine classical languages (Needs more clarification).

Criteria for Classical Language Status

The Ministry of Culture in the Rajya Sabha outlined the criteria for declaring a language as ‘Classical’:

• High Antiquity: The language must have a recorded history spanning 1500-2000 years.
• Valuable Heritage: It should possess a body of ancient literature and texts cherished by generations.
• Originality: The literary tradition must be unique and not borrowed from another linguistic community.
• Distinctness: The classical language and its literature should be distinct from modern forms or offshoots.

Promotion of Classical Languages

Upon being recognized as a classical language, the HRD Ministry provides various benefits, including:

• International Awards: Two major international awards for eminent scholars in classical Indian languages.
• Centre of Excellence: Establishment of a Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages.
• Professional Chairs: Requesting the University Grants Commission (UGC) to create Professional Chairs for Classical Languages, initially in Central Universities.

The Eighth Schedule

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution outlines the official languages of the Republic of India. It is governed by Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution.

• Purpose: Originally created to grant representation on the Official Languages Commission and enrich Hindi and English, the official languages of the Union.
• Medium for Examinations: Candidates appearing for public service examinations have the privilege of using any language from the Eighth Schedule as a medium to answer exam papers.
• Languages Included: Currently, the Eighth Schedule includes 22 languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Chronological Additions

The chronological additions to the Eighth Schedule are as follows:

• 1950: Initially included 14 languages.
• 1967: Sindhi was added through the 21st Constitutional Amendment Act.
• 1992: Konkani, Manipuri (Meitei), and Nepali were included through the 71st Constitutional Amendment Act.
• 2003: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santali were added through the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act.
• 2011: The spelling “Oriya” was replaced with “Odia” through the 96th Constitutional Amendment Act.

Try this PYQ:

Consider the following languages:

1. Gujarati
2. Kannada
3. Telugu

Which of the above has/have been declared as ‘Classical Language / Languages’ by the Government?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

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