Activists of the Maithili Sangharsh Abhiyan demonstrated against the Bihar government’s decision on March 8, 1992 to abolish the Maithili language of the Bihar Public Service Commission. Photo credit: Hindu Archives
While five languages were granted classical language status earlier this month, Maithili, a language that has made repeated claims, missed out as the Bihar government is yet to formally forward the proposal.
Recommendations for granting classical status to a language are made by a special committee of linguistic experts, composed of representatives of the federal Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Culture, and four to five language experts at any given time. The committee is chaired by Chairman Sahitya Akademi. The proposal must be approved by the federal cabinet, followed by a gazette notification.
Sources from the Language Commission revealed hinduism Maithili’s proposal has been forwarded by the ‘Maithili Sahitya Sansthan’ in Patna but the Bihar government is yet to forward it to the Union Home Ministry as per the official procedure.
Therefore, although the 300-page Maithili proposal was discussed at the Linguistics Committee meeting, it was not considered due to technical issues.
12 million speakers
According to the 2011 census, there are approximately 12 million Maithili speakers in India. Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 2003 and became a recognized Indian language. In March 2018, Maithili gained the status of the second official language of Jharkhand. It is the second most spoken language in Nepal after Jharkhand and Bihar.
The Janata Dal, the ruling coalition in Bihar, has been consistent in its demand for Maithili classical language status and reiterated it on October 7, just three days after the federal cabinet approved Maithili classical language status. Queen of Heaven.
JD(U) national working president and Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Jha (also from ‘Mithilanchal’) made this call in a statement issued on X day.
“Preserving and promoting the Maithili language has been my top priority from the beginning. I have made preparations for its inclusion in the category of classical languages in 2018. With my efforts, an expert committee of Maithili scholars constituted by the central government has The report completed on August 31, 2018 made 11 recommendations. The literature of history has been developing independently and continuously, so it should be classified in the category of classical languages.
In a written reply to the Bihar Assembly in July, state education minister Sunil Kumar Singh, while claiming that the decision to grant status to classical languages was taken by the central government, assured The Bihar government will soon submit the proposal to the Centre.
Of the five languages that were granted classical status on October 3, Assamese and Bengali’s proposals came from their respective state governments, while Marathi’s proposal has been pending since 2014. patois has been adopted suo motu Sources said that in 2004, during the second or third meeting of the Language Committee, Sanskrit came up with Sanskrit hinduism. A senior member raised the issue of recognition of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakriti as they were clear examples of Indian classical languages.
The committee recommended these three languages after deliberations, but in 2005 only Sanskrit was announced.
Once a language is declared classical, the Ministry of Education offers certain concessions to promote it, including two major annual international awards for outstanding scholars of said languages, the establishment of centers of excellence for classical language studies, and a requirement for the University Grants Commission to at least First, establish a certain number of professorships in classical languages at central universities.
Published – October 30, 2024 02:47 AM (IST)