Language Research

1. Legislation: Legislation dealing with the use of languages

The Constitution of India, adopted on November 26, 1949, updated to 1996 (Articles 29, 30, 120, 210, 343-351)

Up until the Constitution Act of 1967 (21st Amendment), there were only 14 official languages in India. That Act included the Sindhi language to the Eighth Schedule (languages approved as official). The Constitution Act 1992 (71st Amendment) brought Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali into the Eighth Schedule. Thus, from 1992 onwards, there have been 18 constitutionally identified, defined and accepted languages in India.

The Official Languages Act, 1963 

Updated (April 2003)

THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

The Indian Constitution adopted several safeguards to protect linguistic minorities in the country. Articles 350(A) and 350(B) were adopted in addition to the earlier Articles 29(1), 30, 347 and 350 in order to preserve the interests of minorities. Article 29(1) clearly guarantees the right of minorities to conserve their cultural as well as linguistic traditions. The first clause of Article 30 guarantees all minorities based on religion or language the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their own in order to preserve their linguistic and/or cultural heritage. The second clause of Article 30 prohibits the state from discriminating against minority educational institutions. Thus minorities are allowed to secure state funds for their educational institutions. Article 347 allows the use of minority languages for official purposes. Accordingly, a state should be recognized as unilingual only if one language group constitutes 70 percent or more of the total population. Moreover, where there is a minority of over 30 percent of the total population, the state should be recognized as bilingual for administrative purposes. A similar principle applies at the district level.

Source: Minority Matters: Issues in Minority Languages in India by Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande, University of Illinois, Department of Linguistics, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA, MOST Journal on Multicultural Societies, Vol. 4, No. 2, ISSN 1564-4901, © UNESCO, 2002, http://www.unesco.org/most/vl4n2pandhari.pdf 

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Updated (December 2007)

THE EIGHTH SCHEDULE TO THE CONSTITUTION 

The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently includes the Constitution, the Official Languages Act (1963), Official Languages (Use for Official Purpose of the Union) Rules (1976), and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations made by the central government and the states.

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of “Scheduled Languages”; originally, it contained only 14 languages but their number expanded to 22. At the time the Constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation at the Official Languages Commission, and that the language would be one of the bases that would be drawn upon to enrich Hindi, the official language of the Union. The list has since, however, acquired further significance.

The Indian Government is required to take measures for the development of these languages so that they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge. In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service at a higher level is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium of communication.

The following table lists the languages set out in the Eighth Schedule as of May 2007, together with the regions where they are used:

Source: The Free Dictionary – Wikipedia encyclopedia, Official languages of India http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Official+languages+of+India#endnote_rf-4 

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Updated (September 2008)

PUNJABI – OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN PUNJAB

On 10 September, the Punjab Official Language (Amendment) Bill was unanimously approved by the state Assembly. The Bill making Punjabi the official language in Punjab is paving the way for the comprehensive use of the language in the State administration.

Education and Language Minister Upinderjit Kaur said it was extremely important to monitor the implementation of status of Punjabi as the official language of the state by constituting state level and district level committees.

She also said that “although Punjabi is a scheduled language under the Constitution, yet being language of the minority community, it needs regular, systematic and planned development at both the national and international level, particularly in this era of modern information and communication technology”.

Supporting the Bill, Ajit Inder Singh Mofar (Congress) said this decision should have been taken at least 20 to 30 years ago; adding that the Punjabi language must get priority in schools, colleges and other institutions.

The House also passed the Learning of Punjabi and Other Languages Bill, which will ensure that Punjabi is taught to all students studying in standards 1 to 10 as one of the compulsory subjects from the next academic session starting from April 2009.

Source: Press Trust of India, India's Premier News Agency, September 11, 2008 http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/D70526181A2910D7652574C10021DAA4?OpenDocument

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