New cultural policy makes Marathi mandatory for 4 years in all schools

Maharashtra's new policy mandates four years of Marathi in schools, official Marathi websites, and promotes arts, conservation, and simpler communications

MUMBAI: The Mahayuti government on Monday approved the new cultural policy for Maharashtra which, among other things, has made it mandatory for Marathi to be taught in all schools for a minimum of four years. Websites in the Marathi language have also been made mandatory for government, semi-government and private institutes and organisations registered in Maharashtra.

The education department first issued an order to make Marathi compulsory in all schools, irrespective of the board, in 2020. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

The cultural affairs department under BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar submitted the new cultural policy to the cabinet on Monday. The policy focuses on 10 sectors, namely craftsmanship, language and literature, visual arts, forts and archaeology, folk arts, music, theatre, dance, films and spiritual culture, and has made several recommendations regarding these.

The education department first issued an order to make Marathi compulsory in all schools, irrespective of the board, in 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools were allowed to treat the language as a graded subject, with concessions given to students in the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades for three years from 2022 to 2025. On September 13 this year, the government announced that Marathi would be a compulsory core subject in all schools starting from the academic year 2025-26. This decision marks the end of concessions previously given due to the pandemic, and the new cultural policy proposal ratifies this.

Apart from teaching Marathi in schools and Marathi websites, the policy recommends the preparation of a 25-year master plan for the conservation of the Marathi language. It also proposes that the government issue orders to senior ministers and senior officials to speak in Marathi while briefing the media and in their daily work.

Interestingly, the policy recommends that the government use simple Marathi in its official communications—something that people well-versed with the language and even litterateurs have been saying for years. Many Marathi humorists, in fact, have poked fun at the ostensibly high-flown but unintelligible Marathi of official communications.

The policy also recommends the construction of a Maharashtra Cultural Bhavan and a Maharashtra Folk Art Gallery to establish folk arts research and conservation centres in tribal districts. A special monetary arrangement will be made for the conservation of folk art on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.

The policy proposes that the state government restart all the play theatres that have shut down, and allow the use of MLA funds for theatre-related issues. It also suggests a classical dance period in schools affiliated to all education boards, the revival of single-screen film theatres, inclusion of literature written by saints in school and college syllabi, documentaries on the state’s religious culture and a music university for the state.

The policy also says that schools should teach drawing as a mandatory subject till Class 8. If students choose to continue after that, they should get additional marks in their board exams on the lines of the marks given to students who do well in sports.