CLASSICAL
LANGUAGE STATUS - ART AND CULTURE
News: Centre set to
tweak criteria for according classical language status
What's
in the news?
●
The
Linguistics Expert Committee of the Union Culture Ministry submitted a report
in October 2023, suggesting some tweaks and changes in the criteria for
according classical status to any language.
Classical
language Status:
Criteria:
The Ministry of Culture in the Rajya Sabha outlined the
criteria for declaring a language as ‘Classical’:
● High
Antiquity: The language must have a
recorded history spanning 1500-2000
years.
● Valuable
Heritage: It should possess a body
of ancient literature and texts cherished by generations.
● Originality: The literary tradition must be unique and not borrowed from another linguistic
community.
● Distinctness: The classical language and its literature should be
distinct from modern forms or offshoots.
Benefits:
1.
International Awards:
●
Two
major international awards for eminent scholars in classical Indian languages.
2.
Centre of Excellence:
●
Establishment
of a Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages.
3.
Professional Chairs:
●
Requesting
the University Grants Commission (UGC) to create Professional Chairs for
Classical Languages, initially in Central
Universities.
Go
back to basics:
Classical
Languages in India:
●
As
of now, India recognizes six languages
as classical, including Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu
(2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014).
●
In
addition to these classical languages Pali, Persian, and Prakritand their works
of literature are to be preserved according to India’s National Education Policy - 2020.
●
The
addition of Farsi (Persian) brings the total to nine classical languages (Needs
more clarification).