New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Tuesday, released 55 literary works in classical Indian languages, reiterating that the Union government has worked extensively to strengthen and promote all Indian languages.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Pradhan said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi the government has worked extensively to strengthen and promote all Indian languages such as including more languages in the Scheduled List to translating classical texts into Indian languages, and encouraging education in Indian languages.

Indian languages have stood the test of time despite the attempts to destroy them, he added.

He said that India is the mother of democracy and a country of immense linguistic diversity, and that it is the responsibility of society to ensure that the nation's historical, cultural, and literary wealth is preserved and that future generations are made aware of it.

He added that languages are a unifying force and noted that the Prime Minister Modi has always emphasised that all Indian languages are national languages.

Union Minister Pradhan also said that the inclusion of the essence of the Tirukkural in sign language empowers the vision of an inclusive India, where access to knowledge is ensured for all, and added that this release is a valuable contribution to India's intellectual literature.

The collection released by him includes 41 books developed by the Centres of Excellence for Classical Languages under the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), along with 13 books and a Tirukkural Sign Language series brought out by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT), an official statement said.

The collection features important scholarly works across Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, and Tamil, along with an interpretation of the Tirukkural in Indian sign language.

These publications are part of a wider national effort to place India's linguistic heritage at the centre of education and research and to foster cultural pride, while strengthening engagement with classical knowledge traditions.

--IANS

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