Tulu as additional official language of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in Karnataka | Explained

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Several Tulu activists celebrate the Karnataka Government's decision to accord Tulu second official language status. | Photo Credit: H.S. Manjunath

Karnataka government, in its Cabinet meeting held in Mangaluru on September 18, decided to accord the additional official (administrative) language status to Tulu, which is commonly spoken in Dakshina Kannada district, southern parts of Udupi district in Karnataka and northern parts of Kasaragod district in Keralam.

While making the announcement, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the status will be applicable to administrative matters in the two districts. The respective district administrations will be the implementing agencies. The government will release ₹82 lakh annually for translation, training and language usage purposes.

B. Shivarama Shetty, former Project Director, Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada, Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, said that elected representatives can speak in Tulu at gram sabhas of gram panchayats, taluk panchayats, and zilla panchayats meetings. It also applies to urban local body meetings such as city corporation council, city municipal council and town municipal council meetings. The government circulars and orders issued in the two districts should also contain Tulu in addition to Kannada. People can submit applications to government departments in Tulu. This will make officials who do not know Tulu to depend on translations, translators or learn basics of Tulu.

“If a language is saved it meant its knowledge system is preserved,” he said.

When the BJP government was in power, the then Minister for Kannada and Culture, V. Sunil Kumar, on January 30, 2023, formed a committee headed by M. Mohan Alva, Chairman, Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidir, Dakshina Kannada, to study and submit a report on declaring Tulu as the second official language of Karnataka.

The committee was asked to submit its report to the government in a week. According to Mr. Kumar, the BJP government could not grant official language status to Tulu because the model code of conduct for the 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka was declared on March 29, 2023 and the BJP lost the power in the elections.

Later, the Congress government took over in Karnataka. It appointed a committee led by K. M. Gayatri, Director of Kannada and Culture, to study the procedures adopted by the Andhra Pradesh government to grant additional language status to Urdu. This committee visited Andhra Pradesh on January 19 and 20, 2026 and interacted with officials and studied how Urdu is being used in administration. The committee submitted its report to the Karnataka government on March 4, against the backdrop of the move to declare Tulu as the additional official language.

According to a memorandum submitted by Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, established in 1994, to the government seeking inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, the language has a history of more than 2,000 years. Using the techniques of lexicostatistics, scholars have come to the conclusion that this language developed as an independent language since about 8th centry B. C.

It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. In a Greek papyrus of the 2nd century B.C. known as Charition, the characters of the Western coast of Karnataka speak a peculiar language, which is now proven to be Tulu. This also lends support to the history of this language. The Tulu speaking people are mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature of 2nd century.

Yes, but not widely used. Kannada script is being used instead. Tulu was formerly written in Tulu script, and the ancient works of the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries were discovered in that script. After the Christian missionaries started printing the Bible and related literature in Tulu, the old script was discarded and the Kannada script was used for writing Tulu. Modern Tulu literature is also being developed in that script.

Tulu is taught as the third optional language in schools, from Class 6 to Class 10, in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. It was first introduced for Class 6 in the 2010-11 academic year. It is not being taught as a subject in pre-university and degree classes. Mangalore University introduced a two-year Tulu postgraduation programme in its erstwhile University Evening College (now closed down) in Mangaluru in 2018-19. The programme was wound up from the academic year 2024-25, citing a lack of students in double digits who applied to join the programme.

Yes. It went live on August 6, 2016, at the Wikiconference India, 2016, at Chandigarh after being eight years in incubation since 2008. It was the 23rd Indian language Wikipedia to achieve this distinction. It can be accessed at http://tcy.wikipedia.org. Tulu Wikipedia is promoted by Karavali Wikimedians User Group, Mangaluru, a registered body exclusively for writing for Tulu Wikipedia. Presently it has 4,000 articles and 35 active editors.

The first dictionary for Tulu was published in 1886 (Manner Tulu English Dictionary). The second dictionary was published by the University of Madras in 1967 (edited by M. Mariappa Bhat and Shankara Kedilaya). Under the Tulu Lexicon Project, Rastrakavi Govind Pai Samshodhana Kendra, Udupi has brought out a six-volume Tulu-Kannada-English Lexicon. Its Chief Editor was U. P. Upadhyaya.

The Registrar General and Census Commissioner has recognised Tulu as an independent language of India ever since the department was established, and the Census Report gives statistics about Tulu speakers as a separate linguistic community. It is treated as an important non-scheduled language of India. Not included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

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