Transport officials in the western state had begun testing drivers' ability to conduct basic conversations in Marathi on 20 August. Drivers who failed the test were given a month to learn the language, after which they risked having their licences suspended or cancelled.
The government said the requirement was intended to improve communication between drivers and passengers and ensure safer journeys.
The rule, however, alarmed drivers' unions, which argued that workers should not risk losing their livelihoods while they were still learning the language. Many drivers are migrants who came to Maharashtra from other parts of India in search of work, including the populous Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Amid the protests, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced last week that drivers would be given another year to learn Marathi. He said many had been out of the formal education system for years and needed more time.
State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik has said drivers will be expected to learn Marathi during the additional year and that there will be no further extensions.
Maharashtra has almost 979,000 valid tuk-tuk and taxi permits, nearly half of them in the Mumbai metropolitan region.
The extension has brought relief to drivers who feared losing their ability to work.
"We were worried that if our licences were suspended, our daily income would be affected," said Lakhan Pandey, a taxi driver in Mumbai. "Now we feel somewhat relieved."
But the dispute has reopened a much older debate in Maharashtra, where questions of language, migration and jobs have shaped politics for decades.
"The issue is not simply about communication between drivers and passengers, but about Marathi identity, migration and employment," said Prakash Akolkar, a journalist, author and political analyst.
The tensions stretch back to the creation of Maharashtra itself. The state was formed in 1960 after a long campaign for a Marathi-speaking state.
As Mumbai grew into India's financial centre, it attracted generations of migrants from across the country in search of work. Language became increasingly entwined with arguments over jobs and opportunities for Marathi speakers.
In 1966, the Shiv Sena, a regional political party rooted in Marathi nationalism, was founded on a "sons of the soil" platform, arguing that Marathi speakers were losing jobs to migrants. It went on to become one of Maharashtra's most powerful political forces, with Marathi identity at the heart of its appeal.
Today, Maharashtra is governed by a coalition led by Fadnavis's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one faction of the Shiv Sena, which split in 2022. The rival faction and another regional party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), have also championed the Marathi cause.
Akolkar said it was reasonable to expect people who move to a state to learn some of the local language. But he drew a distinction between that expectation and the politics surrounding it.
"Ordinary people do not always treat language with the same intensity as political parties," he said, adding that parties have often raised the issue when it suits the political circumstances.
Deepak Pawar, a political scientist and president of the Marathi Abhyas Kendra (Marathi Training Centre), which promotes the language, takes a stronger view. He argues that people who have lived in Maharashtra for years should already have acquired at least a basic knowledge of Marathi.
Refusing to learn the local language after living and working in the state for years is "linguistic arrogance", he said.
The tension has also played out in other states, including Karnataka, where language activists fear the local language, Kannada, is being marginalised as many migrants believe they can get by using Hindi or English.
In Maharashtra, the government says drivers are not expected to read or write Marathi or speak it fluently. Under changes to the state's motor vehicle rules, they are required to have a "working knowledge" of the language.
To help drivers meet the requirement, the government has organised classes focused on Marathi words and phrases they might need at work, including asking passengers where they want to go, discussing fares and giving directions.
Singh said he earns between 1,500 and 2,000 rupees ($17-$23; £13-£17) a day and worries that losing even a few days' income could leave him struggling to pay rent and his children's school fees.
Instead, he is trying to learn while working by listening to Marathi radio stations while driving and practising with Marathi-speaking passengers.
Lakhan Pandey said the extra year has made a significant difference. He said he never objected to learning Marathi but wanted enough time to do so.
"We live here, we work here. Of course we should learn Marathi," he said. "Just give us the time to learn it without putting our livelihoods at risk."
The one-year extension has eased immediate concerns among taxi and tuk-tuk drivers, while keeping the requirement to acquire working knowledge of Marathi in place and ensuring that the wider debate over language, migration and employment in Maharashtra remains closely tied to the state's working population.
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