Maithili Sangharsh Abhiyan activists protest against Bihar Government’s decision to abolish Maithili language in Bihar Public Service Commission on March 08, 1992. | Photo Credit: Hindu Archives
While five languages were given the status of classical earlier this month, Maithili, the language for which demands have been raised several times as the Bihar government has not formally forwarded the proposal.
The recommendation regarding the ancient status of the language is taken by a special Committee of Linguists, which includes representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Culture and four to five linguists at any given time. It is headed by the president of Sahitya Akademi. This recommendation has to be approved by the Union Cabinet after which a gazette notification is issued.
Sources of the language committee told A Hindu that Maithili’s proposal had been sent by the ‘Maithili Sahitya Sansthan’ in Patna, but the same had not been forwarded to the Union Home Ministry by the Bihar government, which is a formal process.
Therefore, although Maithili’s 300-page proposal was discussed in the Language Committee meeting, it was not considered due to this technicality.
12 million speakers
According to the 2011 census, there were approximately 12 million Maithili speakers in India. Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as a recognized language of India in 2003. It is included as an optional paper in the UPSC exam. In March 2018, Maithili got the status of second official language in Jharkhand. Besides, Jharkhand and Bihar, is the second most spoken language in Nepal.
The Janata Dal (United), which is part of the ruling coalition in Bihar, has been steadfast in its demand for the status of the ancient Maithili language and reiterated the same on October 7, less than three days after the Union Cabinet issued the same. five languages.
JD(U) national working president and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Jha, who also belongs to “Mithilanchal”, made the call in a statement issued on X.
“The conservation and promotion of the Maithili language has been my priority since the beginning. I had prepared the basis to enter it in the classical language category in the year 2018 itself. Thanks to my efforts, the expert committee of Maithili scholars formed by the Central government made 11 recommendations in its report, which was finalized on August 31, 2018. The first recommendation was — Maithili language is about 1,300 years old, and its literature has been completed. it was developing independently and continuously. Therefore, it should be classified as an ancient language,” he said.
In a written reply to the Bihar Assembly in July, State Education Minister Sunil Kumar Singh, while saying that the decision to grant ancient status to languages rests with the Central government, assured that the Bihar Government will soon send the proposal to the Centre.
Among the five languages that were accorded classical status on October 3, proposals for Assamese and Bengali were from the State government as was Marathi which has been pending since 2014. Pali and Prakrit, these two other languages were adopted. soo mutu in 2004 and Sanskrit in the second or third meeting of the Language Committee, sources said. A Hindu. The senior member had raised the issue of recognition of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit as they were the obvious cases of Ancient Languages in India.
The committee after discussion recommended all three but only Sanskrit was announced in 2005. At a recent meeting of the language committee, the old recommendation was taken up again.
When a language is recognized as a classical language, the Ministry of Education provides certain benefits to promote it, including two major annual international awards for outstanding scholars in the said languages, the establishment of a Center of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages and the establishment of a University Grants Commission is requested to create, at least in Central Universities, a certain number of professional chairs for languages declared classics.
Published – October 30, 2024 02:47 am IST