K. Gokak, the former Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka University, and later a Jnanpith awardee, headed the committee appointed by the Government of Karnataka to analyse and study the linguistic issues that were raised regarding the importance of various languages, including the state language Kannada and other languages such as English, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu.The report given by the committee recommended that the Government provide first language status to Kannada and also demanded the primary facilities that the language needed at the time.