71st Amendment of the Indian Constitution

The 71st amendment of the Indian Constitution amended the 8th Schedule to include certain Indian languages.

In essence, this was done in order to declare these languages to be the official languages of the Republic of India. Prior to this amendment, 15 languages got a chance to be enlisted in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution of India.

The eighth Schedule covers the official languages that the Indian Constitution acknowledges. The constitutional provision relating to the eighth schedule appears in Articles 344(1) and Article 351 of the Indian Constitution.

For more information about the 71st amendment to the Indian Constitution, keep reading this article. This article will help you in your UPSC preparation. This is from the Indian Polity section of the UPSC syllabus.

71st Amendment of the Indian Constitution: Explained

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India was amended in accordance with the 71st amendment of the Indian Constitution. The inclusion of the following languages was the primary reason behind the enforcement of the 71st amendment of the Indian Constitution:

1. Konkani
2. Nepali
3. Meitei (Manipuri)

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution contains a listing of the official languages that the Indian government is obligated to support and promote.

The number of languages listed in the schedule has increased to 18 as of the 71st amendment to the Indian Constitution.

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Objects and Reasons

There have been proposals put out to include certain languages on the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Some of these languages are Konkani, Nepali and Manipuri. The Bill aims to implement this judgment.

Gorkha Bhasa is another name for the Nepali language in some places. During the activities of the Census, other additional nomenclatures have been used. Examples are “Gorkhali,” “Gorkdhi,” “Gurkhiya,” “Khaskura,” and “Naipali”.

Important Provisions

71st Amendment of the Constitution of India amended the 8th Schedule. The year 1992 saw this amendment.

The following languages were then added to the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution thereby increasing the list of languages to eighteen:

1. Nepali
2. Konkani
3. Manipuri

Core Features

1. The Constitution (Seventy-first Amendment) Act, 1992 is another name for the 71st amendment of the Indian Constitution.
2. The Constitution, (Seventy First Amendment) Act, 1992 was presented for the first time in Lok Sabha, by S. B. Chavan. This occurred on August 20, 1992.
3. On August 31, 1992, the bill was approved, and it went into effect.
4. The president at the time, Shankar Dayal Sharma assented to the bill of the 71st Amendment.
5. Parliament adopted the 71st amendment in the forty-third year of the Republic of India.

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Conclusion

The Constitution (Seventy-first Amendment) Act, 1992 included Konkani, Nepali, and Meitei (Manipuri) as official languages by amending the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. As a result, the number of official languages increased to eighteen.

At present, the eighth schedule contains twenty-two languages, these are listed in the table given below:

Assamese	Sanskrit	Telugu	Hindi	Tamil	Bengali
Kannada	Urdu	Manipuri	Gujarati	Nepali	Kashmiri
Malayalam	Sindhi language	Santhali	Punjabi	Maithili	Marathi
Oriya	Konkani	Bodo	Dogri

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