Language is a medium to connect, aiding one to one interaction, thereby making life easy. Since Hindi is the most spoken language in India, Devanagari script of Hindi was declared as the official language of the country and enjoys the status of mother tongue. In honor of the Hindi language, ‘Hindi Diwas’ is celebrated every year on September 14 in India, to increase the importance of Hindi by emphasizing on more and more of its use.
Genesis of Hindi Diwas
India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru selected the date of September 14 to be celebrated as Hindi Diwas in 1949. But on the suggestion of Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Hindi Diwas was celebrated for the first time in 1953. Hindi Diwas is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of famous Hindi poet Rajendra Singh.
Hindi is also a language of the Eighth Schedule. Article 351 deals with ‘Instructions for the Development of Hindi Language’.
Those who have played an important role in getting special status for Hindi include Govind Das, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar and Maithilisharan Gupt.
History and importance of Hindi Diwas
In 1949, the Constituent Assembly recognized Hindi as the official language of India. It was also declared the official language. It is one of the 22 official languages of the Republic of India. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had decided to celebrate Hindi Diwas every year since 1949. Cultural programs are organized across the country on the occasion of Hindi Diwas to honor the Hindi language and Hindi literature. On this day, ministries, departments, public sector undertakings, national banks and citizens receive awards like ‘Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar’ and ‘Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar’ for their important contribution to the Hindi language.
Eminent Hindi authors
Great poets and writers like Mahadevi Verma, Munshi Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay and Suryakant Tripathi Nirala have given Hindi literature a special identity all over the world. In various ceremonies in the country and abroad, literary works of these great writers is used to promote Hindi language and show the cultural glimpse of India. Many films have also been made on these plays penned by legendary Hindi writers .
Hindi ranking worldwide
Hindi is at number three in the list of most spoken languages in the world. English is at number one spot while Mandarin Chinese is at number two spot, based on its quantam of users. Around 60.88 crore people around the world use Hindi as their mother tongue. Many foreign social media influencers are also influenced by Hindi and are making videos in this language. Some have even come and settled in India.
Hindi, the official language of India
The Hindi language derives its name from the Persian word ‘Hind’, meaning ‘land of the Indus River’. In the early 11th century, Turkish invaders named the language of the region around the Indus River as Hindi, meaning ‘language of the land of the Indus River’. It is the official language of India, English being the other official language.
Hindi – Past and Present
Hindi in its present form has emerged through various stages during which it was known by other names. The earliest form of Old Hindi was Apabhramsa. In 400 AD Kalidasa wrote a romantic play called Vikramorvasiyam in Apabhramsa.
The modern Devanagari script came into existence in the 11th century.
Apart from being majorly spoken in India, presently Hindi language is also spoken in some countries outside India also which include Mauritius, Nepal, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana besides Trinidad and Tobago.
Government’s push to promote Hindi
The Government of India, over the years has undertaken several initiatives to promote use of the Hindi language like establishing of the Central Hindi Directorate under the Ministry of Education in 1960.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has also established ‘Hindi Chairs’ in various foreign universities/institutions abroad.
Also, LILA-Rajbhasha (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) is a multimedia based intelligent self-tutoring application for learning Hindi besides the E-Saral Hindi Vakya Kosh and E-Mahashabdkosh mobile app, both initiatives of the Official Language Department, also aim to use information technology for the development of Hindi.
World Hindi Day
While the National Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14, which mainly focuses on the promotion of Hindi language in India, the World Hindi Day is celebrated every year on January 10 with the aim of promoting the Hindi language worldwide.
The day was first celebrated in 2006 commemorating the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference held in Nagpur on January 10, 1975.
It marks the day when Hindi was spoken for the first time in the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) in 1949. It is also celebrated by Indian embassies situated in different parts of the world.
In 2018, World Hindi Secretariat building was inaugurated in Port Louis, Mauritius.
Purpose of World Hindi Day celebration
The purpose of this day is to create awareness about the Indian language and promote it as a global language across the world. It is also used to spread awareness about the use of Indian languages and to raise awareness about issues related to the use and promotion of Hindi language.