Demand for official language status of Tulu language
Recently, there has been a demand by the state of Karnataka and Kerala to include ‘Tulu’ language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and to give it the status of official language of these states.
Tulu language
- Tulu is a Dravidian language spoken in the two coastal districts of Karnataka, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi and Kasaragod district of Kerala.
- According to the 2011 census report, Tulu language is spoken by 18,46,427 people in India. In the book ‘A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages’ by Robert Caldwell, the Tulu language is considered “the most developed language of the Dravidian family”.
- Tulu language has a rich history and oral literature as well. Tulu literature includes folk songs such as Paddana and traditional folk theater forms such as Yakshagana.
Eighth Schedule of the Constitution:
- Article 343 to Article 351 of Part 17 of the Constitution of India has been made related to the official languages of India.
- Article 344(1) of Article 344 provides for the constitution of a commission by the President on the expiry of five years from the commencement of the Constitution.
- Provision has been made in Article 351 regarding the development and propagation of Hindi language, so that it can become a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.
- At present, 22 languages are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo , Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Source – The Hindu
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