Article 343 and Article 351 and Special Position of Sanskrit
Hindi, as
we know had become a symbol of nationalist feelings during the freedom struggle
of India and the leaders encouraged its use. We have been told that the
Sanskrit had lost the position of official language of the Union by a casting
vote.
Article
343 gave Hindi the status of official language of the Union. For Sanskrit,
there is a special status mentioned in article 351, whereby Sanskrit was given
a position of the primary source language for many languages including Hindi.
Calls for
Classical Languages The first call for a classical language was given by Tamil
academicians. They claimed that the Sangam anthologies should be considered as
classical languages. It’s an ancient language and the old Tamil is the
prototype of the Dravidian family of languages. The government took a note and
then consulted the experts of the Sahitya Academi.
Later a
committee was established and some criteria were established to grant the
status of Classical Languages. Criteria for Classical Languages in India The
government of India currently follows the following criteria to determine the
eligibility of language to be considered for classification as “classical
language”: High antiquity of its early texts/ recorded history over a period of
1500-2000 years.
A body of
ancient literature/ texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by
generations of speakers. The literary tradition be original and not borrowed
from another speech community. The classical language and literature being
distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical
language and its later forms or its offshoots. Current Classical Languages
Tamil was the first Classical Language of India.
The
government declared Tamil (in 2004), Sanskrit (in 2005).
These two
languages are undoubtedly parental sources for many languages belonging to the
Indo-European family and the Dravidian family of linguistic groups.
Later the
government declared Kannada and Telugu (in 2008) as classical languages of
India.In 2013, Malayalam was also given status of classical language. In 2014,
Odiya was also given the status of Classical language.
With this
the following six languages are included in the list of Classical Languages:
- Tamil (since 2004)
- Sanskrit (since 2005)
- Telugu (since 2008)
- Kannada (Since 2008)
- Malayalam (since 2013)
- Odiya (since 2014)
