Tulu language in Eighth Schedule?

Mangaluru: The people of Dakshina Kannada and parts of Udupi have been witnessing efforts being made to recognize 'Tulu' language by giving it constitutional status. An awakening was observed in this regard in June of 2021 in the two south-western coastal districts of Karnataka.

Earlier this week, the state minister for Kannada and Culture, V Sunil Kumar tweeted, "A committee led by Dr. Mohan Alva will conduct a study and provide appropriate recommendations to declare Tulu as the second official language of Karnataka. The committee has been advised to give recommendations in a week's time."

It is to be noted that Dr. Mohan Alva is the founder of Alva's Education Foundation that has a series of educational institutions. Dr. Mohan Alva is also known to be one of the leaders in Coastal Karnataka to fund education of needy students. Tulu is a language that is spoken by an estimated 3 million people in Karnataka. For several years, Tulu speakers and enthusiasts had a demand to include Tulu language in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution. In mid-2021, several Twitter users posted statistics about Tulu language. One Twitter user, Girish Alva who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that Tulu is recognized as one of the most developed Dravidian languages and it is a direct descendant of the Proto-South Dravidian language.

Several Twitter users then tweeted their thoughts and made the hashtag #TuluTo8thSchedule trending for a day on 4 July, 2021. With such high hopes instilled in the Tulu speakers of Karnataka and India, would the Union Government fulfil this demand?

The culture minister Sunil Kumar MLA from Karkala in his enthusiasm to corner Tuluva support for this party electorally has also announced that Tulu will be also made the second language which has riled the Kannada activists. A senior Tulu activist said the minister was misleading the Tulu speaking community with his half- baked knowledge about Tulu as a Dravidian language.

It is Tulu as second language that the Tulu speaking people want not to include Tulu into the eighth schedule of the constitution. This movement is also not anything new as Dr.VeerappaMoily a Tulu writer and a former Chief Minister had earlier led a high powered delegation of bureaucrats and scholars to the former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani campaigning for the same issue.