The Narendra Modi government on Thursday granted ‘classical language’ status to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali. Addressing a press conference, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said, “PM Modi has always focused on Indian languages. Today 5 languages like Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali have been approved as classical languages.” The government has taken this decision just before the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Marathi identity has been an issue in the state.
After the announcement of Modi government on Thursday, there will now be a total of 11 classical languages. Before this, Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya had the status of classical languages. Taking an important decision on Thursday, Modi government announced that Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages will also be included in the classical language.
In 2004, the Central Government had decided to create a new category of languages as “Classical Languages”. In which Tamil was first declared a classical language. After this, Sanskrit was given the status of classical language on 25 November 2005, Telugu on 11 October 2008, Kannada on 31 October 2008, Malayalam on 8 August 2013 and Oriya on 1 March 2014.
