================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 21:1 January 2021 ================================================================ The Eighth Schedule Languages* A Critical Appraisal Prof. B. Mallikarjun Former Director Centre for Classical Kannada Central University of Karnataka Kadaganchi, Aland Road, Kalaburagi District - 585311 Karnataka, India
[email protected] =============================================================== ‘In India, language is one of the most significant markers of social inequality. Much of the social dominance is translated into language.’1 Yogendra Yadav Social and Political Scientist Introduction Before independence, India had only two languages-English and the vernacular(s). All Indian languages were put together under one nomenclature -vernacular. After her independence empowerment of Indian languages took place in two stages. First-when they found a place in the Constitution under one nomenclature or the other, they got a status. Second-when the States of the Union were re-organized on linguistic lines. Many of them got a State, on the basis of majority of speakers of a language in the respective state. The Constitution of India identified select languages as Scheduled languages and placed them in the Eighth Schedule. The rest of the languages automatically, officially got identified as non- scheduled languages. In India, the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution is cited in language related discussions more often than any other language related Articles of the Constitution and discussion on language related decisions. This indicates its importance as well as utility of the schedule. The Constitution of India adopted on November 26,1949 by the Constituent Assembly listed 14 languages Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam. Marathi,Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil,Telugu and Urdu in the Eighth Schedule.