The Karnataka government’s recent decision to accord second administrative recognition for Tulu has turned the focus on other minor languages and dialects of the state. Karnataka is home to numerous minor languages, including Tulu, Konkani, Kodava and Beary. People speaking these languages have in the past raised concern about mainstream pro-Kannada groups marginalising local identities or appropriating regional cultures.
The Karnataka government’s recent decision to accord Tulu — one among five Dravidian languages, the others being Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam — second administrative language status is being widely seen as a political move by the DK Shivakumar-led Congress government in the state. The language is mostly spoken in coastal Karnataka, which has for years been a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion. The recognition accorded to Tulu, it is hoped perhaps, might help change that.
Whatever the electoral outcome of the move, beyond the political narrative is the story of a language, and other similar regional languages and dialects in Karnataka, that many claim have suffered slow neglect by the mainstreaming of the official Kannada language.
The demand for recognition of Tulu, a language with over a 2,300-year-old history, dates back decades. Karnataka is home to numerous minority-language-speaking communities, including those that speak Tulu, Konkani, Kodava and Beary. People speaking these languages have in the past voiced concern about mainstream pro-Kannada groups marginalising local identities or appropriating regional cultures. As for Tulu, there have been demands for official recognition for other regional languages such as Kodava and Arebashe. While Tulu is spoken in coastal Karnataka, in the districts of Dakshin Kannada and Udupi (which is where officials can now use Tulu for official communication, following the Shivakumar government’s decision last month), Kodava and Are-bhashe are mostly used in the Kodagu region.
Now, the recognition accorded to Tulu brings both hope for the other minor languages of eventual success in gaining a similar position, as well as apprehension of being sidelined not just by Kannada, but now, also Tulu.
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“The institutional privileging of a dominant language may influence the visibility, status, and development of other regional languages, as observed in the relationship between Hindi and languages such as Maithili and Bhojpuri,” agrees Dr Purushottam Bilimale, chairman, Kannada Development Authority. “From this perspective, the institutional advantages associated with Kannada’s status as the administrative language of Karnataka cannot necessarily be expected to accrue to Tulu and other regional languages in the same manner.”
He adds: “While films, theatre, folk arts and literature are flourishing in Tulu and Kodava languages, similar development is not visible in other minor languages and dialects. It is difficult to teach these languages at schools, because they are not officially recognised languages. Successive governments have also not made the kind of efforts in promoting those minor languages by providing funds.”
The recognition accorded to Tulu by the Karnataka government does not equal its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, which lists the 22 languages officially recognised by the Union government. States, however, can adopt one or more local languages for official use within their boundaries — a provision earlier used by Andhra to give official recognition to Urdu — and this is what Karnataka has now done for Tulu.
Linguists believe Tulu branched out from the Proto-Dravidian language family roughly 2000 years ago. In his landmark 1970 work Dravidian Languages, Mikhail S Andronov provided critical comparative evidence showing that Tulu is not a dialect of any other major South Indian tongue. Instead, it developed its own unique grammatical, phonetic and lexical structures, like Kannada and Malayalam.
Renowned cultural activist, linguist and founder of the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre (BRPC), GN Devy, strongly champions the idea that major, politically dominant languages are absorbing minor, indigenous and oral languages, driving catastrophic loss of global and Indian linguistic diversity. Through his People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), Devy has demonstrated that when a major language consumes a minor one, it doesn’t just erase words; it permanently destroys unique human knowledge systems and ecological wisdom. Linguists identify this process as glottophagy (language eating), where a dominant language swallows the space and identity of the speakers of the languages around it.
Last month, Karnataka government granted second administrative language status to Tulu. The language can now be used for official communications in the coastal districts of Dakshin Kannada and Udupi, where it is primarily spoken. Photo: Wikipedia
Often the process is encouraged by parents who push their children to excel in languages which can better help them communicate in the public and professional worlds.
“There are justified reasons for the extinction of a language, such as the dwindling in the number of the speaking population of a particular minor language and the younger generation not being keen to speak a language for social reasons or because they are unsure of getting employment by studying or speaking that language,” agrees Bilimale.
What it results in, however, say experts, is not just the loss of one language, but wider cultural loss.
Finnish linguist Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and British linguist Robert Phillipson have compared the loss of linguistic diversity with the loss of biodiversity. Just as the disappearance of a plant or animal species reduces the diversity of the natural world, the disappearance of a language reduces humanity’s cultural and linguistic diversity. The use of a language should not only be a matter of culture or personal preference, they argue. People should also have meaningful opportunities to use their own language in important areas of life, including education, public administration, and access to justice.
One of the challenges being anticipated in the use of Tulu as a second administrative language is its lack of a script. While the language originally did have its own script, for decades even writers in Tulu and other languages of the coast have used the Kannada script. While there have been attempts to revive the script in recent years, the language not being taught in schools and colleges has made the path more difficult.
Several languages and tribal dialects in Karnataka are believed to be critically or potentially endangered owing to a lack of inter-generational transfer and dwindling population. According to the People’s Linguistic Survey of India and linguistic bodies like the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), the endangered languages are categorised by their level of threat. Karnataka’s critically endangered languages include the likes of Siddi, Hakki Pikki, Koraga, Badaga, Yerava, Irula, Soliga, Gouli, Betta Kuruba, and Belara. “Lack of intergenerational transfer, urban migration and displacement, dominance of regional and global languages, absence of formal education integration, and social stigma are the reasons for the fate of these languages”, rues SR Vijayashankara, writer, critic and member of Kendra Sahitya Akademi. The Federal had earlier reported on the plight of Belara when the last person believed to be speaking this language died.
The plight of these languages is not shared by Tulu. The Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy (KTSA) had marked an early institutional step toward promoting the language. The KTSA was established during M Veerappa Moily’s tenure in 1994. Since then, the proposal to recognise Tulu as an additional official language has passed through a series of committees examining its historical case and administrative feasibility, says GVS Sudhakara Shetty, one of the members of the Gayathri Committee, formed earlier this year to study the Andhra Pradesh framework for recognising an additional official language, Urdu, to pave the way for Tulu recognition. The committee submitted its report in March this year.
Not everyone, however, agrees that Kannada as the official state language has resulted in the overshadowing of the region’s minor languages.
“Kannada with its spirit of ‘Sarvajanangada Shantiya Tota’ ( A garden of peace for all communities, where all races, sects, cultures and languages live in harmony) never treated minor languages of the region as being subservient; the state promoted all languages without any prejudices,” insists BA Vivek Rai, professor of Kannada language, literature and folklore. “The setting up of academies [for the study and research] for all minor languages and culture testifies to the attempts made by successive governments to preserve, promote and develop every language and culture that come under the umbrella of Kannada.”
The state has established the Karnataka Tulu Literature Cultural Academy, the Karnataka Arebhashe Literature and Sahitya Akademy, Karnataka Kodava Bhasha Academy, Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy and the Karnataka Lambani Cultural and Language Academy.
By the same logic, he adds that the recognition given to Tulu should not be viewed as a threat to other minor languages in the state.
Cultural practitioners, however, talk of disparities.
While Tulu theatre activist Naveen D Padil talks of the language’s vibrant stage tradition and popular following, Prashant Rai, producer of the 72nd National Award-winning Tulu film Imbu, talks of issues of acceptance of minor language films within the Kannada film industry despite “Karnataka government recognising films being produced in Tulu, Konkani, Banjara, Arebashe and Kodava languages”.
Banjara language film Konchavaram won the National Film Award for Best Regional Language film at the 61st National Film Awards. Kandeelu, a Kodava film centred on a rural farmer’s refusal to sell his land despite family tragedy and financial constraints, received Best Kodava film at the 71st National Awards. Mithya won honours at the 72nd National Film Awards, featuring performances tied to regional and Arebhasha cinematic contributions. “Though the Kannada film industry refuses to recognise Tulu cinema, films such as Kantara (2022), Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014), Su from So (2025), Ondu Motteya Kathe (2017), Garuda Gamana Vrishbha Vahana (2021), made by Tulu people, have taken their culture to a national platform,” says Prashanth Rai, content creator for various entertainment channels in Karnataka.
Rai’s claim indicates a complex reality. State recognition is expected to bring in greater opportunity for the preservation and promotion of a minor language. But sometimes what matters is community acceptance.
For Tulu, the challenge now will be to translate official backing into greater public use. The success could act as inspiration for the other minor languages waiting in the wings for their moment of recognition.
