News:The Government has said that it is taking positive steps for the listing of three languages namely Bhojpuri, Rajasthani and Bhoti into the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Facts:
Constitutional provisions related to Eight Schedule:
- The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in article 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution.
- The Eight Schedule consists of the 22 languages namely (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri.
- Of these languages,14 were initially included in the Constitution.Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
- Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992.
- Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003.
Additional information:
Article 344(1):
- It provides for the establishment of a Commission by the President on the expiration of 5 years and then after 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution.
- The commission should have members which should represent the various languages specified in the 8th Schedule.They should make recommendations to the President for the dynamic use of Hindi for official purposes of the Government of India among others.
Article 351:
- It provides for the spread of the Hindi language to develop so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India without interfering with the other languages of India specified in the 8th Schedule.
