Sindhi was the national language of Sindh before the partition of India-Pakistan. Pakistan Sindh Assembly had ordered the compulsory teaching of Sindhi language in all private schools of Sindh. Post-partition, the Sindhi-speaking immigrants who left Pakistan around 1947–48 and who are mostly settled in Gujarat and Maharashtra states demanded Sindhi be recognized in India as well.
In 1966, due to persistent demands from the Sindhi-speaking people for the inclusion of the Sindhi language in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. Sindhi language used to be the language of a Province of Undivided India, though Sindhi was not a regional language in a well-defined area and for partition, would have continued to be so.
On the recommendation of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, the Sindhi language was up for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. It was announced on 4th November 1966, that Government had decided to include the Sindhi language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.
The Twenty-first Amendment includes Sindhi as one of the languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution, officially known as The Constitution (Twenty-first Amendment) Act, 1967. This raised the total number of languages that were listed in the Eighth Schedule to fifteen. The Eighth Schedule lists languages whose responsibility to develop is with the Government of India.
The following changes were made to the Eighth Schedule: -
Currently, the Indo-Aryan language is spoken by about 23 million people in Pakistan, mostly living in the south-eastern part of Sindh. After the inclusion of Sindhi in the Indian Constitution, many states still don’t recognize as part of their schedule of languages. This language is an optional third language in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. It is considered as the oldest language in the Indian Sub-continent and a spiritual one.
Best Platform for Legal Professionals