A race is on among the Indian languages for elevation to the status of official language, putting the government in a quan-dary. Bhojpuri is leading this race with other languages, such as Kumaoni, Garhwali, Bundelkhandi, Chhatt-isgarhi, Ho, Pali, Rajasthani, Mizo and Nicobarese among 38 languages, competing for entry into the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde is supportive of the move to include Bhojpuri in the list of scheduled languages, but the Centre cannot accede to the demand to expand the list of scheduled languages from the current 22 to 50. The fallout of such a move on the examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and on Indian currency, which at present depicts only around 15 languages, cannot be ignored, top government officials said.
In the absence of established criteria on inclusion of languages in the 8th Schedule, the ministry is mulling formulating guidelines. The government is also separately looking at the option of undertaking a census survey to determine how many citizens speak a particular language.
The row was set off after former home minister P. Chidambaram assured Parliament this year that Bhojpuri would soon be in the 8th Schedule. But it is proving to be a tough decision for the MHA, which is now flooded with requests from MPs and state governments for the inclusion of other languages. Moreover, the Constitution of India states, “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.” A government official said a decision to include more languages under the 8th Schedule could gradually erode the significance of Hindi as the official language of the State.
Meanwhile, efforts are on to hold widespread consultations with the ministry of culture, department of personnel and training and other stakeholders to derive criteria under which a particular language can be included in the 8th Schedule without seeming to discriminate against others.
The government, meanwhile, is also examining a suggestion to de-link the UPSC examinations from the inclusion of languages in the 8th Schedule.