- Amid the demand for classical status for many languages, the Union government has decided to tweak the criteria for awarding the special tag.
The criteria evolved by the Government to determine the declaration of a language as a Classical language is as follows:
- High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years;
- A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers;
- The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community;
- The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.
- The Linguistics Expert Committee of the Culture Ministry submitted a report last year, suggesting changes.
- There has been a demand for classical language status to Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, and Maithili.
- Once a language is notified as a classical language, the Education Ministry promotes it-
- By instituting two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in the language,
- Setting up a center of excellence for studies,
- And requesting the University Grants Commission to create Professional Chairs in Central universities.
- Currently, six languages enjoy the ‘Classical’ status namely Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
Dig Deeper: Read about government initiatives to protect Schedule 8 languages.
