Assam to celebrate ‘Bhasha Gaurav Week’ from November 3 as Assamese gets classical language status

NEW DELHI: Assam is set to observe "Bhasha Gaurav Week" from November 3 to November 9 following the recognition of Assamese as a classical language. Ranoj Pegu, the state’s education minister, announced about the Bhasha Gaurav Week in a post on X, emphasizing that the week-long celebration will focus on promoting Assamese and other indigenous languages of Assam.

As per the official X post, a meeting was held at Janata Bhavan to finalize the plans, which was attended by chief secretary Ravi Kota and officials from the education department, Assam Publication Board, and Assam state textbook production and publication corporation. As per Pegu, the celebrations will feature various cultural programmes, reflecting the diversity of languages in the state.

Additionally, a special book will be published related to the occasion. The X post read, “A plan was prepared to celebrate “Bhasha Gaurav Week” with a series of colorful programs aimed at the upliftment of Assamese as well as other indigenous languages of Assam. It was also decided to publish a book related to this occasion.”

Classical language status approved to five languages

The Union Cabinet on October 3 approved the conferment of classical language status to Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali languages. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi.

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Classical Language Status: Background and history

On October 12, 2004, India introduced the "classical language" category, initially granting Tamil this status and setting specific criteria. Languages must have ancient texts over 1,000 years old, original literary traditions, and be culturally significant. Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia later received the status. In 2013, Maharashtra requested classical status for Marathi, which was reviewed by the Linguistic Experts Committee (LEC) under Sahitya Akademi. The criteria were revised in 2024 to consider proposals from Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal for Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali. Following these updates, the LEC recommended all five languages for classical status