Meghalaya Ministers in Delhi to push for inclusion of Khasi in 8th Schedule of Constitution

Cabinet Minister from Meghalaya govt. joined Khasi Authors' Soc. Nat. Seminar to push for Khasi language's inclusion in 8th Schedule of Const. Min. unveiled compilation of evidence in favour.

Three Cabinet Ministers from the Meghalaya government joined the Khasi Authors’ Society’s National Seminar over the past two days in New Delhi, to push for the inclusion of the Khasi language — the indigenous language of the State’s Khasi people — in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. 

The Ministers, from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the United Democratic Party, and the National People’s Party, were also accompanied by two members of the East Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, an MLA and an MP, all of whom attended parts of the seminar. The Ministers also unveiled a compilation of all the evidence in favour of the language’s inclusion.

After passing a resolution, calling for the government to bring a Bill for the inclusion of the Khasi in the Eighth Schedule, dozens of Khasi authors and intellectuals held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Saturday afternoon. They were joined by Meghalaya Arts and Culture Minister Paul Lyngdoh.  

Mr. Lyngdoh told The Hindu, “We are here to be a part of this seminar to propagate and push for the inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. It is a long pending demand of the Khasi people in Meghalaya and Khasi diaspora across the world.”

Last month, Mr. Lyngdoh said the members of the Meghalaya government met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in this regard. “We are told that it is under active consideration and there is a list of 38 such pending languages, in which Khasi and Garo are also included,” Mr. Lyngdoh said. 

The Khasi Authors’ Society sent memoranda to the Union Home Ministry in this regard in 2021. Mr. Lyngdoh said the State Assembly in 2005 recognised both Khasi and Garo as “associate” official languages of the State and that in 2019, the Assembly passed a resolution to include the languages in the Eighth Schedule. He added that the Khasi Autonomous District Councils conduct their official business in the Khasi language. 

“It is one of the few surviving languages of the austro-asiatic descent. It has been studied at the graduation level at Calcutta University from 1900 onwards. And there is a lot of literature, writing, and documentation about the language and in the language. The North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), a Central University, has a Khasi Department,” Mr. Lyngdoh said.