Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray writes to PM Modi, seeks classical language status for Marathi

According to a press release issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the latter to personally intervene in speeding up the process concerning the recognition of Marathi as a “classical language”. In the letter, Thackeray mentions that an expert committee established by the government of Maharashtra had prepared a report recommending the grant of classical language status to Marathi. He noted that the state had submitted a proposal based on this to the Centre on November 16, 2013.  

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Proposal pending with Ministry of Culture

Thackeray elaborated that Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra fulfilled the criteria to attain the classical language status. He pointed out that despite repeated reminders, the proposal was still pending with the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The Maharashtra CM revealed that the matter had been referred to Sahitya Akademi’s Language Committee for consideration. Finally, he again reiterated his demand seeking the PM’s intervention in ensuring that Marathi got the classical language status.  

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Classical language status under 'active consideration'

There has been a consistent demand from many states for the promotion of their respective official languages for many years. In 2004, Tamil was the first language to be granted classical language status. This was followed by Sanskrit in 2005, Telugu in 2008, Kannada in 2008, Malayalam in 2013 and Odia in 2014. The criteria adopted by the Centre to determine the eligibility of a language for classical language status includes its recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years, a body of ancient literature, whether its literary tradition is original and not borrowed from another speech community and other yardsticks.  

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In July 2019, Union Culture Minister Prahlad Patel informed the Parliament that the proposal for granting classical language status to Marathi was under active consideration. He stated that the Madras High Court had dismissed petitions against it. He gave this information in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The minister stated, "The proposal is again under active consideration in consultation with other ministries and committee of linguistic experts through (the) Sahitya Akademi." 

(With PTI inputs)

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