Ahead of Karnataka Assembly elections, state govt forms panel for official language status for Tulu

In the days leading up to the Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP is making an effort to placate linguistic communities in coastal Karnataka, only days after trying to placate caste groups by promising increased reservations.

On January 30, Kannada and Culture Minister V Sunil Kumar announced the formation of a group to assess the case for Tulu becoming an official language in Karnataka and offer suggestions.

The state of Karnataka is attempting to designate Tulu as the second official language. This is expected to fulfill a long-standing request of the Tulu-speaking community. A committee has been established to investigate.

Coastal Karnataka is known as Tulunadu

In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of coastal Karnataka, which locals refer to as Tulunadu geographically, Tulu is spoken. According to a tweet from Kannada and Culture Minister Sunil Kumar, a committee led by scholar Mohan Alva has been established by the Department of Kannada and Culture to investigate the idea of designating Tulu as the second official language of Karnataka.

The committee is supposed to file report in a week

Within a week, the committee is supposed to turn in its report. The Tulu-speaking population has pushed for recognition as an official language. In actuality, it was added to the Constitution's Eighth Schedule in Tulu language while BS Yediyurappa was the chief minister in 2008. He had promised that it would be recommended to the Union government at the time. Online campaigns demanding the language's official status were started.

After Udupi native and minister Sunil Kumar tweeted about the government's stance on the Tulu language, netizens began calling for the official recognition of Byari, Koraga, Kodava, and other languages.

Published on: Tuesday, January 31, 2023, 02:05 PM IST