Union Cabinet has approved classical language status for five languages on 3 October 2024.
These languages are Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Pali, and Prakrit.
Since 2013, there has been a pending demand for Marathi to be granted classical status.
Up until now, India has had six classical languages. These were Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, and Odia.
Tamil was the first language to be given classical status in 2004. Sanskrit received classical status in 2005.
At a meeting in July 2024, the Linguistics Experts Committee, presided over by the Sahitya Akademi, revised the criteria for conferring classical status.
Linguistics Expert Committee is made up of four or five linguistic experts as well as officials from the Union Ministries of Home and Culture.
The Sahitya Akademi President serves as its chair.
When a language is designated as a classical language, the Ministry of Education offers certain incentives to encourage its use.
Among these benefits are two major annual international prizes for distinguished language scholars.
Establishing a Centre of Excellence for study in classical languages is another benefit.
