• There have been demands from time to time for inclusion of Khasi in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

• The central government had received a proposal in this regard. 

• As the evolution of dialects and languages is a dynamic process, influenced by socio-cultural, economic and political developments, it is difficult to fix any criteria for languages, whether to distinguish them from dialects, or for their inclusion in the   Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, the minister said. 

• The earlier attempts, through the Pahwa (1996) and Sitakant Mohapatra (2003) committees, to evolve such fixed criteria have been inconclusive. 

List of languages in the Eighth Schedule

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of 22 languages:

1) Assamese

2) Bengali

3) Bodo

4) Dogri

5) Gujarati

6) Hindi

7) Kannada

8) Kashmiri

9) Konkani

10) Maithili

11) Malayalam

12) Manipuri

13) Marathi

14) Nepali

15) Odia

16) Punjabi

17) Sanskrit

18) Santhali

19) Sindhi

20) Tamil

21) Telugu

22) Urdu 

Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Sindhi language was added in 1967. Thereafter three more languages — Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali — were included in 1992. Subsequently Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added in 2004.

Demand for more languages for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule

According to the ministry of home affairs, there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. They are:

1) Angika

2) Banjara

3) Bazika

4) Bhojpuri

5) Bhoti

6) Bhotia

7) Bundelkhandi

8) Chhattisgarhi

9) Dhatki

10) English

11) Garhwali (Pahari)

12) Gondi

13) Gujjar/Gujjari

14) Ho

15) Kachachhi

16) Kamtapuri

17) Karbi

18) Khasi

19) Kodava (Coorg)

20) Kok Barak

21) Kumaoni (Pahari)

22) Kurak

23) Kurmali

24) Lepcha

25) Limbu

26) Mizo (Lushai)

27) Magahi

28) Mundari

29) Nagpuri

30) Nicobarese

31) Pahari (Himachali)

32) Pali

33) Rajasthani

34) Sambalpuri/Kosali

35) Shaurseni (Prakrit)

36) Siraiki

37) Tenyidi

38) Tulu.

Constitutional provisions relating to Eighth Schedule

• The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution. 

• Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, which shall consist of a chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to make recommendations to the President for the progressive use of Hindi for official purposes of the Union.

• Article 351 of the Constitution provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote 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 and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily, on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. 

• It would thus appear that the Eighth Schedule was intended to promote the progressing use of Hindi and for the enrichment and promotion of that language. 

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