While five languages were granted classical status earlier this month, Maithili, a language whose demand has grown over time, has again missed out as the Bihar government has not formally communicated the proposal.
Recommendations regarding the classical status of a particular language are made at a certain point in time by a special committee of linguistic experts, consisting of a representative of the Federal Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture and four or five language experts. It is chaired by the President of Sahitya Akademi. The recommendations must then be approved by the Union Cabinet, after which they will be gazetted.
A source at the Language Commission said: hindu The proposal for Maithili was forwarded by the Patna-based ‘Maithili Sahitya Sansthan’ but was not forwarded to the Union Home Ministry by the Bihar government, which is an official process.
Therefore, a 300-page Maithili proposal was discussed at a meeting of the Linguistics Committee, but could not be considered due to this specialization.
12 million speakers
According to the 2011 census, there are approximately 12 million Maithili speakers in India. Maithili was recognized as an Indian language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, 2003. It has been included as an optional subject in the UPSC exam. In March 2018, Maithili received official language status, second only to Jharkhandi. Moreover, Jharkhand and Bihar are the second most spoken languages in Nepal.
The Janata Dal (United), which is part of the ruling coalition in Bihar, has been consistent in its demand for classical language status for Maithili and on October 10, just three days after the Union Cabinet approved the same for Maithili. The same claim was repeated on the 7th of February. Five languages.
Sanjay Jha, a native of “Mithilanchal” who is also the JD(U) national working president and Rajya Sabha member, made this request in a statement issued to X.
“The preservation and promotion of Maithili has been my top priority from the beginning. In 2018, the foundation was laid for its own inclusion in the classical language category. Thanks to my efforts, the expert committee of Maithili scholars constituted by the central government made 11 recommendations in its report completed on August 31, 2018. The first recommendation is that Maitili is about 1,300 years old, and its texts include: It has developed independently and continuously. Therefore, it should be placed in the category of classical languages,” he said.
In a written reply to the Bihar Assembly in July, state Education Minister Sunil Kumar Singh asserted that the decision to grant classical status to a language lies with the central government and assured that the Bihar government would soon send a proposal to the central government.
Among the five languages granted classical status on October 3, proposals for Assamese and Bengali have come from their respective state governments, as has the case for Marathi, which has been pending since 2014. Two other languages, Pali and Prakrit, were adopted. suo motu According to sources, along with Sanskrit at the second or third meeting of the Language Commission in 2004. hindu. A senior member raised the issue of recognition of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit as they are clear examples of classical Indian languages.
After deliberation, the committee recommended all three, but declared only Sanskrit in 2005. At the recent Language Committee meeting, old recommendations were re-adopted.
Once a language is designated as a classical language, the Ministry of Education awards two major international awards each year to eminent scholars of that language, establishes centers of excellence for the study of classical languages, and the University Grants Commission grants at least a certain number of central universities declared as such. We are asked to create a professorship specializing in classical languages.
Posted – October 30, 2024 2:47 AM IST
