Jharkhand Govt gives 2nd language status to Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithili & Angika

Shashank Shekhar

Ranchi.  In a move to win over eral lakhs of Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithali and Angika speakeing voters living in Jharkhand in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Raghubar Das government has included these four languages (Bhojpuri, Maghi, Maithali and Angika ) in the list of  state’s second language. The State Cabinet approved it on March 21, 2018.

The  decision to give second state language status to  these four languages were taken on the basis of number of people in Jharkhand speaking these languages as per the  2011 census which was carried in the state. Maghi dominated the other language as 18.35 lakh people  speak Maghi in Jharkhand followed by Bhojpuri (6.6 lakh) while 1.68 lakhs people speak Maithali .

Though Angika language mostly spoken in Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur, Deoghar and  Dumka districts in Jharkhand also  has been included in the second language list but census did not cover this language.

This information was given by cabinet secretary  S K G Rahate after the cabinet meeting which took place on March 21 evening  at Project Bhavan.

Its presumed that there has been huge increase in the number of people speaking these since the last census and it should be around 25 lakh now. It may be mentioned here that before giving second language status to these four languages on March 21, Jharkhand  Government had earlier notified 11 other languages which include Urdu, Bengali, Odiya, Ho, Mundari, Khortha, Nagpuri, Kuruk, Khariya, Santhali and Panch Pargania giving them second official language status.