Manipur Official Language Act


The Manipur Official Language Act is an act that declares the official language of the State of Manipur. It was passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly, approved by the Governor of Manipur. It makes Meitei language as the official language of the Government of Manipur. It was initially enacted in 1979 but later amended in 2021, to replace Bengali script's sole usage by the concurrent usage of both Meitei script and Bengali script, for writing the Meitei language.

Act enabled in 1979

The Manipur Official Language Act, 1979 was enabled by the Government of Manipur on 27 October 1979. It stated the following:

Official definition of "Manipuri"

The clause of the section 2 of the Manipur Official Language Act, 1979 defines the meaning of Manipuri language as follows:

Official language of the state

The section 3 of The Manipur Official Language Act, 1979 explains the official language status of the state as follows:

Amendment in 2021

The Manipur Official Language Act, 2021 received permission from the Governor of Manipur on 25 February 2021. Afterwards, it was published in the Official Gazette of the Government of Manipur on 10 March 2021.
The act states the following:

Causes of amendment

As a part of the Meitei script movement, a group named Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup pressurized the government of Manipur to make Meitei script an official writing system for the state's official language, Meitei language, in place of the Bengali script, demanding that the legal wording, "written in Bengali Script" in the Manipur Official Language Act 1979, should be corrected and replaced with "written in Meetei Mayek script".

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