Tura, Oct 27: Sundar A. Sangma, President of the Garo Baptist Convention (GBC) in a letter expressed his concern and disappointment over the exclusion of Garo or Achik from the tentative list of 38 languages to be incorporated in the Eight Schedule notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs recently.
It must be noted that the demand for the inclusion of Garo language in the eight schedules of the Constitution of India is a long-pending and legitimate call.
The GBC has urged the government of India and the government of Meghalaya to consider reviewing and amending the recently released list and including the Garo or Achiks language in the revised list.
The Garo Baptist Convention also urged both the central and state governments to seriously consider the aspirations of Garo people in this regard.
About 1.5 million people speak Garo in Northeast India, primarily in the five districts of the state of Meghalaya, and about 33% of the population of Meghalaya speaks Garo or A·chik.
The language has also reached doctoral study level, and thousands of students pursue their studies in Garo language on academic front.
Also, there are demands for the inclusion of 38 languages, including Khasi, in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The other languages in the list that are yet to get approval includes Angika, Banjara, Bazika, Bhojpuri, Bhoti, Bhotia, Bundelkhandi, Chhattisgarhi, Dhatki, English, Garhwali (Pahari), Gondi, Gujjar or Gujjari, Ho, Kaachachhi, Kamtapuri, Karbi, Khasi, Kodava (Coorg), Kok Barak, Kumaoni (Pahari) and Kurak.
The other languages are, Lepcha, Limbu, Mizo (Lushai), Magahi, Mundari, Nagpuri, Nicobarese, Pahari (Himachali), Pali, Rajasthani, Sambalpuri or Kosali, Shaurseni (Prakrit), Siraiki, Tenyidi and Tulu.
Currently, there are 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule : Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Out of these 22 languages, 14 languages were included in the Constitution.
In 1967, Sindhi was added. In 1992, Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were includen.
In 2004, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added.
