What is the 21st Amendment Act?

By Balaji

Updated on: February 24th, 2023

21st Amendment Act officially known as the Constitution Act, 1967 altered the Eighth Schedule, increasing the number of scheduled languages to fifteen and adding Sindhi as one of them. The Eighth Schedule lists the languages for which the Government of India is responsible for development. It attempted to add Sindhi as one of the scheduled languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and was introduced by the then Home Minister Yashwantrao Chavan.

Table of content

1. 21st Amendment Act (1967)
2. What is the 21st Amendment Act?

21st Amendment Act (1967)

Initially, 14 languages were listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. In 1992, the 71st Amendment was ratified, adding three new languages: Meitei, Konkani, and (Manipuri) Nepali, Maithili, Santhali, Dogri, and Bodo.

In 2003, the 92nd Amendment increased the total number of languages to 22.
In the year 1967, on 20 March, the Rajya Sabha received the introduction of the Constitution Bill 1967.
The then Home Minister, Yashwantrao Chavan, kept it out and tried to include Sindhi in the list of Scheduled Languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Sindhi-speaking population has been continuously demanding that the Sindhi language be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Sindhi used to be a provincial language of undivided India.
It would have remained so without division, even though it is not currently a regional language in a clearly defined region.
The Linguistic Minorities Commissioner also advised including Sindhi in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Bill was debated in the Rajya Sabha on 4 April 1967 and was originally approved on the same day.
The Lok Sabha debated the bill on 7 April 1967 and approved the bill as approved by the Rajya Sabha.
The measure was approved by President Zakir Hussain on April 10, 1967.

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