Why in news
The Union Cabinet approved classical language status to Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Pali, and Prakrit.
India has had six classical languages till now — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, and Odia.
Tamil was the first language to be given classical status in 2004, followed by Sanskrit in 2005
Benefits of Classical Language Status
Once a language is notified as a Classical language, the Education Ministry provides certain benefits to promote it:
Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in classical Indian languages
A Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Languages is set up
The University Grants Commission is requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for the Classical Languages so declared
COMMENTS