Demand For Inclusion Of Bhojpuri In The Eighth Schedule Of The Constitution:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said his government would revive its long-pending demand for inclusion of Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, so that it can be accorded the status of an official language.
- The state cabinet had sent a proposal to the Centre in this regard in 2017.
Eighth schedule to the Constitution:
- Part XVII of the Indian constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.
- The Constitutional provisions related to the Eighth Schedule are:
- Article 344: Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution.
- Article 351: It provides for the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.
- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri are the 22 languages presently in the eighth schedule to the Constitution.
