Ninety-second Amendment of the Constitution of India

The Ninety-second Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act, 2003, further expanded the recognition of India’s linguistic diversity by amending the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. This amendment included Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santali as official languages of India, raising the total number of constitutionally recognised languages from eighteen to twenty-two. The amendment came into effect on 7 January 2004, following the assent of the President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Background and Context

The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India lists languages that the Government of India is responsible for promoting and developing. These languages enjoy special status for representation in examinations, public service, and cultural development initiatives.
When the Constitution came into force in 1950, the Eighth Schedule contained fourteen languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Subsequent amendments expanded the list as follows:

• The Twenty-first Amendment (1967) added Sindhi, increasing the number of languages to fifteen.
• The Seventy-first Amendment (1992) added Konkani, Manipuri (Meitei), and Nepali, increasing the number to eighteen.
• The Ninety-second Amendment (2003) then included Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santali, making the total twenty-two.

The inclusion of these four languages reflected the government’s effort to acknowledge India’s complex multilingual fabric and respond to long-standing socio-political movements that demanded constitutional recognition for regional and tribal languages.

Legislative History and Proposal

The Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Bill, 2003 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 18 August 2003 as the Constitution (One-hundredth Amendment) Bill, 2003 (Bill No. 63 of 2003) by Lal Krishna Advani, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs.
Initially, the Bill sought to include only the Bodo language in the Eighth Schedule, as part of a Memorandum of Settlement between the Government of India, the Government of Assam, and representatives of the Bodo community, which promised the inclusion of Bodo as part of a peace and autonomy agreement.
However, during the parliamentary discussions, Advani moved an official amendment to include three additional languages — Dogri, Maithili, and Santali — in response to similar demands from various linguistic communities. The Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which reviewed the Bill, supported this expansion and recommended its passage without alteration.
The Lok Sabha debated and passed the Bill on 22 December 2003, adopting Advani’s amendment, and it was subsequently passed by the Rajya Sabha on 23 December 2003. The President gave his assent on 7 January 2004, and it was notified in The Gazette of India on 8 January 2004.

Text of the Amendment

The Ninety-second Amendment made the following modifications to the Eighth Schedule:

• Inserted “3. Bodo” and “4. Dogri” as new entries.
• Inserted “10. Maithili” and “18. Santali”, with necessary re-numbering of subsequent entries.
• As a result, the total number of languages in the Eighth Schedule became 22.

Languages Added by the Amendment

1. Bodo: Spoken primarily in Assam, Bodo is a Tibeto-Burman language and the mother tongue of the Bodo people, one of the largest indigenous groups in North-East India. Its inclusion was a direct outcome of the Bodo Accord (2003), aimed at granting political recognition and fostering peace in the region.
2. Dogri: Dogri is spoken mainly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Written in both Devanagari and Perso-Arabic scripts, Dogri represents a significant linguistic and cultural group in northern India.
3. Maithili: A member of the Indo-Aryan language family, Maithili is widely spoken in Bihar and Jharkhand, as well as in parts of Nepal’s Terai region. Its rich literary tradition dates back to the medieval period, with prominent poets such as Vidyapati contributing to its cultural prestige.
4. Santali: A Munda language of the Austroasiatic family, Santali is spoken predominantly by the Santhal tribe across Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, and Assam. The language uses the Ol Chiki script, developed by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the 1920s, and is deeply associated with tribal identity and heritage.

Parliamentary Debate and Discussion

During the parliamentary debate on 22 December 2003, L. K. Advani clarified that the amendment to include Bodo stemmed from the peace agreement with the Bodo community and was “a part of a valuable settlement ensuring the cultural and political inclusion of the Bodos.”
He also emphasised that the inclusion of new languages in the Eighth Schedule did not diminish the status of Hindi or English, which continued to serve as the link languages of India. Advani stated:

“National unity is more important than the language issue. English and Hindi can co-exist for the unity of the country.”

Several members of Parliament, including Pranab Mukherjee, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Janeshwar Mishra, and Chandrakala Pandey, welcomed the move but called for a more comprehensive policy on language inclusion. While Mukherjee cautioned against “piecemeal legislation,” others such as S. Viduthalai Virumbi of the DMK demanded that all official state languages be given equal constitutional status.
Opposition members also discussed the difference between language and dialect, arguing that inclusion should be based on linguistic distinctiveness rather than political pressure.

Ratification and Presidential Assent

After passage by both Houses of Parliament, the Bill received Presidential assent on 7 January 2004 and came into effect immediately. The amendment was published in The Gazette of India the following day, 8 January 2004.

Public and Political Reception

The passage of the Ninety-second Amendment was widely celebrated, particularly among the newly recognised linguistic communities.

• In Jharkhand and Odisha, tribal youth celebrated the inclusion of Santali, bursting crackers and distributing sweets in Santhal-dominated areas such as Karandih, Parsudih, Kadma, and Birsanagar.
• Salkhan Murmu, Member of Parliament from Mayurbhanj (Odisha), who had long campaigned for the inclusion of Santali, hailed the amendment as “historic for tribal people” and a “recognition of their identity and culture.”
• Political leaders such as Shibu Soren described the move as a long-overdue political acknowledgment of India’s tribal communities.

Significance and Impact

The Ninety-second Amendment carried deep symbolic and practical importance:

• Recognition of Linguistic Pluralism: The inclusion of four new languages reaffirmed India’s commitment to linguistic diversity and cultural inclusivity.
• Empowerment of Marginalised Groups: By recognising tribal and regional languages, the amendment strengthened the sense of identity and representation among minority communities.
• Cultural Preservation: Constitutional recognition encouraged the development, teaching, and documentation of these languages, protecting them from decline.
• Administrative and Educational Reforms: The inclusion facilitated the use of these languages in government communication, education, and public examinations in their respective regions.

Subsequent Developments

As of today, 22 languages are recognised under the Eighth Schedule. The addition of Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santali under the Ninety-second Amendment represents the last major expansion of the Schedule to date.
The constitutional recognition of these languages has led to their inclusion in educational curricula, cultural programmes, and media representation.