Manipuri language soon to be listed as classical status in India

Imphal: The titular king of Manipur and also a Member of the Parliament of the state in the Rajya Sabha Leishemba Sanajaoba has stated that the process for enlisting the Manipuri language as the 7th classical status of India has already been completed.

The titular king, a member of the Official Language of India while speaking at a function at Imphal on Sunday expressed his hope that the Manipuri language which has a literary tradition of at least 2,000 years will surely get the classical (language) status soon.

He said that the Manipuri language meets all four criteria set by the Union Government for classical language status. There's a movement to achieve classical status for Manipuri, which has a literary tradition of at least 2,000 years.

Manipuri (Meitei) was added to the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution in 1992 as an official language and became the first Tibeto-Burman language to be recognized as such. 

He further stated that India officially recognizes six classical languages: Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia. The National Education Policy of 2020 also mandates the preservation of literature in Pali, Persian, and Prakrit, bringing the total to nine. Other languages, including Manipuri, Marathi, Maithili, Bengali, and Pali, seek official classical status.

Additionally, in 2020, Leishemba Sanajaoba was elected as a Member of Parliament of the Rajya Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As soon as he joined politics, he sought the attention of the Central Government of India to recognize the Meitei language as a "classical language".