Cabinet approves classical language status for Marathi, Bengali, 3 other languages 

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the status of classical language for Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"This is a historical decision and this goes very well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government's philosophy of taking pride in our culture, taking pride in our heritage and taking pride in all the Indian languages and the rich heritage that we have," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a cabinet briefing.

The classical languages serve as a custodian of Bharat's profound and ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community's historical and cultural milestone, the government said.

The Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as "classical languages" on October 12, 2004 declaring Tamil as classical language and thereafter Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia languages were given the classical language status.

A government statement said that a proposal from the Maharashtra government in 2013 was received in the ministry requesting classical language status to Marathi, which was forwarded to the Linguistics Experts Committee (LEC). The LEC recommended Marathi for classical language.

The assembly elections are due later this year in Maharashtra and this was a major poll issue in the state.