In October 2024, the Union Cabinet approved giving the status of ‘classical language’ to how many languages?

Correct option is D

The correct answer is (d) 5.
• In October 2024, the Union Cabinet approved granting ‘classical language’ status to five languages — Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali.
• With this decision, the total number of classical languages in India increased from 6 to 11.
Information Booster:
• A language is granted classical status based on criteria such as:
– High antiquity of early texts (usually over 1,500–2,000 years)
– A rich body of ancient literature
– An independent literary tradition not borrowed from another language
• Before October 2024, the six classical languages were:
– Tamil (2004)
– Sanskrit (2005)
– Kannada (2008)
– Telugu (2008)
– Malayalam (2013)
– Odia (2014)