Hindi Diwas

• 14 Sep 2020

Why in News

Every year, 14^th September is celebrated as Hindi Diwas in India.

Key Points

• National Hindi Day:
  
  • Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, was adopted as the official language of the Republic of India on 14^th September, 1949.
    
    • Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Seth Govindadas made important contributions to make Hindi the official language.
  • Besides Hindi, English is the other official language (Article 343 of the Constitution).
  • Hindi is also an eighth schedule language.
  • Article 351 pertains to ‘Directive for development of the Hindi language’.
• World Hindi Day: It is observed on 10^th January.
  
  • The Day commemorates the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference held in Nagpur on 10^th January, 1975, which saw 122 delegates from 30 countries participating in it.
  • It was first celebrated in 2006 by former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh with an aim to promote Hindi language across the world.
  • The World Hindi Secretariat building was inaugurated in Mauritius in 2018.
• About the Hindi Language:
  
  • Origin:
    
    • Hindi got its name from the Persian word Hind, meaning 'land of the Indus River'. Turkish invaders in the early 11^th century named the language of the region Hindi, 'language of the land of the Indus River'.
    • The modern Devanagari script came into existence in the 11^th century.
  • Spoken in Countries outside India: Hindi is the fifth most spoken language among the total languages spoken in the world.
    
    • It is spoken in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, USA, UK, Germany, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Mauritius, and South Africa.
• Government Initiatives to Promote Hindi:
  
  • The Central Hindi Directorate was established in 1960 by the Government of India under the Ministry of Education.
  • Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has established ‘Hindi Chairs’ in various foreign universities/institutions abroad.
  • LILA-Rajbhasha (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) is a multimedia based intelligent self-tutoring application for learning Hindi.
  • E-Saral Hindi Vakya Kosh and E-Maha Shabda Kosh Mobile App, both initiatives of the Department of Official Language, aim to harness information technology for the growth of Hindi.
  • Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar and Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar recognise contributions to Hindi.

Source: PIB