Grant Marathi Classical Language Status, Maharashtra Minister To Centre

Senior Maharashtra Minister Subhash Desai on Monday met Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy with a demand to accord classical language status to Marathi by February 27, and said its non-fulfilment may even lead to an agitation by people.

Desai, who holds the portfolios of Industry and Marathi Language Department, said Reddy told him that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were in favour of granting classical language status to Marathi and the decision in this regard would be taken soon.

"If the Centre has decided to grant classical language status to Marathi, then there is no better day than February 27, which is celebrated as Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din (Pride of Marathi Day),” the senior Shiv Sena leader told reporters here.

He said that he had requested Reddy to visit Mumbai and make the announcement on February 27.

The Maharashtra government has launched a campaign to press the demand for accord classical language status to Marathi and has sent over 1.2 lakh postcards to President Ram Nath Kovind in this regard.

"People of the state have become aware of the campaign and will be disillusioned if Marathi is not granted classical language status soon and it may even lead to an agitation,” Desai cautioned.

Desai took a dig at former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying that the BJP leader had rooted for classical language status for Marathi while in office, but has been silent in recent months.

"I had expected him (Fadnavis) to take the lead in meeting the prime minister and ensuring that Marathi is granted classical language status, but nowadays he is busy with elections in different states," Desai said.

Desai said till now only six Indian languages -- Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Odia -- have been recognised as classical languages.

He said though the Centre had taken the decision in 2004 to confer the "classical language" status to various languages, Marathi has been ignored despite repeated demands.

"Should we always resort to the agitational path for what is rightfully deserving for Marathi language," Desai said.

He noted that the state government had formed a committee chaired by litterateur Rangnath Pathare who had prepared a voluminous report citing evidence about the ancientness of the language, originality and continuity and literary traditions for the criteria for granting classical language status to a language.

A high-level committee of language experts appointed by the Centre had unanimously approved a proposal to this effect seven years ago, but there has been no further progress in the matter, Desai said.

The Maharashtra Legislature passed a unanimous resolution recommending to the Centre to accord the "classical language" status to Marathi in 2020. 

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