From Moily to Modi: The Political Journey of Tulu Recognition

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How different governments, leaders and political parties carried the demand for Tulu’s inclusion in the Eighth Schedule - from memorandums and Karnataka Cabinet resolutions to Parliament, Prime Ministerial representations and the 2026 state-level recognition

Karnataka Cabinet's September 18, 2026 decision to make Tulu the state's second additional administrative language in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi marks a major development in the language's political journey. But it is important to distinguish this decision from another demand that has run through the movement for decades: inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

That constitutional demand predates the 2026 Cabinet decision by more than five decades. It has passed through memorandums, literary conferences, state governments, Parliament, political campaigns, delegations to Prime Ministers and Union ministers, and government committees.

Congress leaders have taken it up. BJP governments have taken it up. Members of Parliament have raised it. Cultural institutions have pursued it. And political leaders from coastal Karnataka have repeatedly returned to the question. Yet Tulu is still not among the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule.

So who carried the demand? Political history suggests there is no single answer. It is a story of a demand that survived changes of government and repeatedly re-entered the political agenda.

Story begins before Moily

Political journey of Tulu recognition did not begin with M. Veerappa Moily. One of the earliest documented interventions dates to 1971, when S.R. Hegde, founder-president of Tulu Koota, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, expressing the aspirations of Tulu-speaking people.

In 1974, a Tulu Sammelan passed a resolution demanding official-language recognition through inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule. That places the constitutional recognition demand firmly in the political record of the 1970s.

For the next two decades, the movement largely relied on resolutions, memorandums, conferences and representations to governments. Then came a significant institutional intervention.

1994: Moily gives Tulu a state institution

During M. Veerappa Moily's tenure as Karnataka Chief Minister, the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy was established in 1994. Academy provided a permanent state-level institutional platform for Tulu language and literature. It would subsequently become part of the wider campaign for recognition of Tulu. This was an important change in the nature of the political movement.

The demand was no longer confined to cultural organisations approaching governments. A state institution devoted to Tulu now existed within Karnataka's administrative framework.

2001: Karnataka takes an official position

Next major political milestone again involved Moily. According to contemporary reporting on the movement, in 2001 former Chief Minister Moily submitted scientific material relating to Tulu to the government of Chief Minister S.M. Krishna.

In September that year, the Karnataka Cabinet decided to recommend to the Union government that Tulu be included in the Eighth Schedule. This was a significant escalation. The demand had moved from: community resolution - political memorandum - state-government recommendation.

Karnataka had formally placed its position before the Union government. But a state Cabinet recommendation could not itself amend the Constitution. Final decision on Eighth Schedule inclusion remained a matter for the Union government and Parliament.

2002: Sorake takes Tulu into Parliament

Following year, the demand reached the Lok Sabha. On May 13, 2002, Udupi MP Vinay Kumar Sorake raised the issue in Parliament. His intervention specifically sought the inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule.

Sorake described it as a persistent demand among people of the Dakshina Kannada region, parts of Kodagu and Kasaragod in Kerala. He referred to Tulu's literary and cultural traditions and argued that the language deserved recognition from the Centre.

This parliamentary record is particularly important because it provides a primary source for the political history of the demand. Tulu had moved from coastal Karnataka's public forums into the national legislature.

2003: Campaign reaches Delhi again

Political campaign continued in Delhi. Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy organised a national convention in New Delhi in February 2003 to draw the attention of policymakers to the language and its recognition demand.

At the convention, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes also spoke in support of the demand for Tulu's inclusion in the Eighth Schedule. A memorandum was submitted to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Significance of this episode is that the Tulu demand was now receiving political advocacy under a BJP-led Union government as well. The campaign was therefore already crossing party lines.

2008: Yediyurappa and a new political chapter

Next major state-level intervention came under B.S. Yediyurappa. BJP leader became Karnataka Chief Minister in 2008. Contemporary reporting and later accounts of the Tulu campaign record that the Yediyurappa government took up the question of Tulu's official-language recognition and assured that it would be recommended to the Union government, including for Eighth Schedule recognition.

But the initiative did not result in Tulu being added to the Eighth Schedule. That distinction matters.

Across the political history of the demand, there is a recurring pattern: political support - government initiative - recommendation or committee - no constitutional inclusion. Demand remained alive, but the final constitutional step did not occur.

2016: D. Veerendra Heggade takes the demand to Modi

Another significant national-level intervention came during the Narendra Modi government. In 2016, D. Veerendra Heggade led a delegation to New Delhi seeking inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule. The delegation met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and submitted a memorandum on the issue.

This was significant because the demand was being placed directly before the Union government at the highest political level. Yet once again, the meeting did not result in immediate constitutional inclusion. Political journey continued.

2019: Demand moves into social media politics

By 2019, the nature of political mobilisation around Tulu had begun changing. The #JaiTulunad campaign brought the Eighth Schedule demand into social media. The campaign demonstrated that the political pressure surrounding Tulu was no longer dependent entirely on traditional organisations, memorandums and delegations. Twitter and other digital platforms had become part of the language movement. That development became even more visible in 2021.

2021: Tulu becomes a renewed political issue

In 2021, a major social-media campaign demanded official-language status for Tulu in Karnataka and Kerala and renewed the call for Eighth Schedule inclusion. The #TuluOfficialinKA_KL campaign received support from political figures in coastal Karnataka.

Among those who publicly backed the demand were then Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel, then minister Kota Srinivas Poojary and MLA Vedavyas Kamath, according to reporting at the time. The campaign showed that the Tulu issue had again become politically visible. But visibility did not translate automatically into constitutional recognition.

Centre's position remained a hurdle

Distinction between political support and constitutional action became particularly clear in December 2021. In the Lok Sabha, the Union government said that it had no plans at that time to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule. The government referred to the earlier Sitakant Mohapatra committee and concerns surrounding the addition of languages to the Eighth Schedule.

That response demonstrated why the Tulu demand had remained unresolved despite repeated political interventions. Issue was not simply whether politicians supported Tulu. Larger question was whether the Union government would initiate the constitutional process required to add another language to the Eighth Schedule.

2023: BJP government creates a new route

A significant development came in January 2023. BJP-led Karnataka government headed by Basavaraj Bommai constituted a committee headed by academician Mohan Alva to examine the proposal to give Tulu official-language status in Karnataka. Announcement came from then Kannada and Culture Minister V. Sunil Kumar. This was important because it introduced another route to recognition.

Political debate was no longer limited to: Should Tulu be included in the Eighth Schedule?

It also became: Can Karnataka itself give Tulu official administrative status?

Those are different constitutional and administrative questions. The 2023 committee therefore became an important bridge between the older Eighth Schedule campaign and the state-level administrative recognition that arrived in 2026.

Political file survives another government change

2023 committee was formed under a BJP government. Karnataka Assembly election that year brought the Congress back to power. Tulu question survived the change. Issue continued to be raised by coastal political representatives, including in the Karnataka Assembly.

This continuity is one of the most important features of the political history. Demand did not disappear when one party left government. It moved with the file.

2026: From political demand to Cabinet decision

After further administrative and legal examination, the matter finally reached the Karnataka Cabinet in 2026. On September 18, the Cabinet meeting held in Mangaluru decided to make Tulu the state's second additional administrative language in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

This was a significant state-level recognition. But it is not the same as Eighth Schedule inclusion. That distinction needs to remain clear. The two demands. Karnataka administrative recognition. Decided by the Karnataka government. Applies to administrative use in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi under the 2026 Cabinet decision. Eighth Schedule recognition. A constitutional matter. Requires action at the Union level and ultimately Parliament.

Tulu has now achieved the first. Second remains a separate demand.

So, who carried Tulu's political demand?

Look at the timeline and the political ownership becomes difficult to assign to one party.

S.R. Hegde took the issue to Indira Gandhi in 1971.
M. Veerappa Moily helped create the Tulu Sahitya Academy and later submitted material that preceded the S.M. Krishna government's 2001 Eighth Schedule recommendation.
S.M. Krishna's government formally recommended inclusion.
Vinay Kumar Sorake raised the issue in the Lok Sabha.
George Fernandes supported the demand at the 2003 national convention under the Vajpayee government.
B.S. Yediyurappa's government later took up the question of official-language recognition.
D. Veerendra Heggade led a delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
BJP leaders publicly supported the renewed campaign in 2021.
Basavaraj Bommai's government constituted the Mohan Alva committee in 2023.
And in 2026, the Congress-led Karnataka government brought the matter to the Cabinet and approved additional administrative-language status for Tulu in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

Documented sequence therefore does not fit neatly into a Congress versus BJP narrative. It is better understood as a demand that crossed governments and political generations.

Unfinished Eighth Schedule chapter

But September 18, 2026 did not close the entire Tulu recognition story. It closed or at least advanced substantially - one part of it. Tulu now has additional official administrative status in its principal Karnataka region. But the demand that began appearing in memorandums and resolutions in the 1970s remains on another track: inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

That demand has travelled from S.R. Hegde to Moily, from S.M. Krishna to Sorake, from Yediyurappa to Heggade, from Modi-era representations to the 2021 campaigns and beyond. More than five decades later, the political journey has produced a major state-level milestone.

But the constitutional chapter is still a different story. The question for the next chapter is therefore simple: Tulu has now received recognition from Karnataka. What would it take for Tulu to enter the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution?

Umesh Kumar Shimladka, Sr Journalist

Keywords: Tulu recognition, Tulu Eighth Schedule, Tulu language Karnataka, Tulu political history, Tulu official language, Tulu recognition demand

Source

rajbhasha.gov.in/en/languages-included-eighth-schedule-indian-constitution

www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2009/Dec/08/will-the-centre-finally-hear-the-tulu-voice-111016.html

www.indiankanoon.org/doc/1400201/

www.indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/karnataka-govt-tulu-second-official-language-status-8416064/

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