Assam: Assamese, four other languages get "Classical" language status

Guwahati: The Centre on Thursday approved conferring classical language status to five Indian languages: Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali, and Prakrit. This decision is seen as a step towards preserving the rich heritage of these languages.

"Today, five languages – Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali – have been approved as classical languages," Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at an event.

This brings the total number of recognized classical languages in India to 11, joining Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia. The government has been actively working to conserve and promote these languages and their rich cultural heritage.

The decision to grant classical language status to these five languages comes after years of advocacy. Maharashtra, for instance, had been pushing for the recognition of Marathi as a classical language since 2014. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had recently criticized the government for allegedly ignoring this demand.

To qualify for classical language status, a language must meet several criteria, including, a long history with early texts dating back 1,500-2,000 years, a body of ancient literature considered a heritage by generations of speakers, knowledge texts, such as prose texts, epigraphical, and inscriptional evidence and a distinct identity from its current form or later offshoots.

While Assamese is widely spoken in Assam, Bengali in West Bengal and Tripura besides Bangladesh, and Marathi in Maharashtra in India, Pali is primarily used in certain regions of India and other countries like Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is known as the language of Buddha's sermons and is taught in some universities.