The Union Cabinet recognized Bengali as a classical language in India. A total of five languages including Bengali were given this recognition. In this respect, the spread of Bengali language will increase.
Narendra Modi’s Cabinet meeting on Thursday approved the decision to recognize Bengali, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese as classical languages. Earlier Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Oriya languages were given this recognition. This recognition has been given to five more languages.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnab said this is a historic step in preserving India’s rich cultural heritage. This decision is made based on actual scientific data, research and historical data. In future, the same criteria will be used to grant the status of classical languages to other languages.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media X and said, Our government works to highlight the rich history and culture of India. We are responsible for popularizing regional languages. I am very happy that the cabinet has decided to grant the status of classical languages to Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit. These languages are wonderful, they bear witness to our extraordinary diversity.
Criteria for declaring a classical language in India
At the national level, the Sahitya Akademi formed a committee of language experts. They submit recommendations to the government as to whether a language is classical or not based on certain criteria. .
Basically five things are seen in this case. The language must have a history of one and a half to two thousand years, there must be a history of speaking or writing in that language from generation to generation, there must be a continuation of writing poetry and prose, and there must be inscriptions or some such evidence. This language and literature must evolve and the present language will be connected with the previous language.
What are the benefits of classical language?
When a language is recognized as a classical language, the central government takes several steps in the promotion and expansion of that language. National awards for classical languages are announced. Chairs are created for the promotion and spread of that language in central universities.
Three universities have been created for Sanskrit language in 2020. An organization has been created at the central level for research, translation of ancient texts in Tamil. Central Institute of Indian Languages has also been created in Mysore for Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Oriya languages. Various international awards are given for works in classical languages.
After the announcement of this decision by the Union Cabinet, a contest has started as to who is more responsible for giving Bengali the status of a classical language.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted on X that, after our long struggle, Bengali, our mother tongue, has been given the status of a classical language by the Government of India. For a long time, we have been demanding that the Bengali language be given this recognition by submitting huge research findings in this regard to the Minister of Culture of the Central Government.
Mamata said, today our dream has been fulfilled. The central government accepted our demand this evening. Although the languages of some other states got this recognition earlier, Bengali was left out.
It feels good, in our fight finally Bengali language got this intended and fair recognition.
After that, Trinamool leaders, supporters, members of Parliament kept posting on social media saying that Bengali was recognized as a classical language because of the Chief Minister.
Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Sukanta Majumder said, it is a day to be proud as a Bengali. As you know, the Language Expert Committee was formed under Sahitya Akademi. That committee gave their recommendations. Based on that recommendation these five languages have been recognized as classical languages. For this, I thank all the members of the Union Cabinet including the Prime Minister.
The BJP leaders thus gave the entire credit to the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet and the Sahitya Akademi Committee.
What will be the benefit?
Literary and educationalist Narsinghamprasad Bhaduri told TV18 that getting this recognition will have an impact on the development of the Bengali language in the future. It will have an impact on education, tradition, literary tradition, research.
Literary Tishrendu Mukhopadhyay told Anandabazar, Bengal should have got this status long ago. Sanskrit, the South Indian language, Oriya received this honor earlier. It is believed that the Bengali language was born from the corruption of Magadhi. Bengali is the most widely spoken language after Hindi.
He expressed hope that the spread of Bengali language will increase in this respect.
Source: ANI.
