UPSC Articles
Tulu Language speakers demand official language status
Part of: GS Prelims and GS II – Constitution ; 8th Schedule
In news
- The Tulu speakers have been requesting the governments to give it official language status and include it in the eighth schedule to the Constitution.
- Tulu is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in the coastal districts Dakshina Kannada and Udupi of Karnataka and Kasaragod of Kerala.
Official language of the Union
- Article 343 (1) state that Hindi written in the Devanagari Script is to be the official language of the Union.
- Official language Act, 1963 provides for use of English in addition to Hindi for all official purposes of Union and business transactions in Parliament.
- Constitution does not specify the official language of different states.
- Legislature of each state may adopt any one or more languages used in the state or Hindi as official language of the state.
- Until that is done, English will be used as official language of the state.
- Most States have adopted major regional language as the official language.
Inclusion in the 8th Schedule
- At present, there is no such Criterion for languages to be included in 8th Schedule.
- Pahwa (1996) and Sitakant Mohapatra (2003) committees also failed to evolve any criteria.
List of 22 languages in 8th schedule
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, SIndhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri
Significance of inclusion under 8th Schedule
- Recognition as official language of the nation.
- Sahitya Academy will start recognising the language.
- Books would be translated into other recognised Indian languages.
- Mps and MLAs could speak in this language in Parliament and state assemblies
- Candidates could write all India competitive examinations like civil services exam in a scheduled language
