Hindi Diwas

• 15 Sep 2021

Why in News

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

• One of the reasons behind celebrating this day is to prevent the increasing trend of the English language in the nation and the neglect of Hindi.

Key Points

• History of the Hindi Diwas:
  
  • 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.
  • The first Hindi Day was celebrated in 1953.
  • 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’.
  • Hindi is not a classical language.
• World Hindi Day:
  
  • It is observed on 10^th January.
  • Commemorates the anniversary of the first World Hindi Conference held in Nagpur on 10th January, 1975, which saw 122 delegates from 30 countries participating in it.
  • 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.
• Related Government Initiatives:
  
  • The Central Hindi Directorate was established in 1960 under the Ministry of Education with an aim to impart knowledge of Hindi through correspondence to the people of non-Hindi speaking Indian states, Indians settled abroad and foreign nationals desirous of learning Hindi.
  • 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-Mahashabdkosh 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: IE