Hindi will become medium to empower, promote regional languages: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: As the country is observing Hindi Diwas on Thursday, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said Hindi has no competition with other Indian languages, and it will pave the way to make the latter stronger.

Taking to social media site X, Amit Shah said that the Hindi language played an unprecedented role in uniting the country during the difficult days of the independence movement.

“Every indigenous language and dialect are treasure of our couture heritage. We can build an empowered nation only by empowering every language. I believe that Hindi will become a medium to empower and promote the regional languages. Hindi will pave the way to make regional languages stronger,” Amit Shah said in a video message posted on X. Talking about the significance of Hindi during the freedom struggle of the country, the union minister said that the language instilled a feeling of unity in a country divided into many languages and dialects.

“Hindi, as a language of communication, played an important role in carrying forward the freedom struggle from East to West and North to South in the country. The movements for achieving 'Swaraj' and 'Swabhasha' were going on simultaneously in the country. Considering the important role of Hindi in the freedom movement and after independence, the architects of the Constitution had accepted Hindi as the official language on 14 September 1949,” he added.

Shah said that all our Indian languages and dialects are our cultural heritage, which we have to carry with us. He also said that Hindi never competed with other Indian languages nor it will do so in future and expressed his belief that Hindi will become a medium to empower all the local languages. “All our Indian languages and dialects are our cultural heritage, which we have to carry with us," he said, adding that Hindi never competed with any other Indian language nor it will do so in future.

Only by strengthening all our languages, a strong nation will be built. Every year Hindi Diwas is observed on September 14. The day is dedicated to the Hindi language after it was announced as the official language of the Union of India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had officially declared September 14 as the Hindi Diwas.

The Constituent Assembly of India declared Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, to be the official language of the Union of India on September 14, 1949. English is the second official language.

The decision to use Hindi as the official language of India was legalised by the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950. Hindi was made one of the official languages in order to streamline government operations in a multilingual nation. Spoken as a native language by 258 million people, Hindi is recognised as the fourth most spoken language in the world. In 1950, Hindi was made the official language of the Union of India.

The official language of India is designated as Hindi in Devanagari script in Article 343 of the Indian Constitution. Rashtra bhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha, had the idea for the inaugural World Hindi Conference in 1973. On January 10, 1975, Nagpur hosted the event. Its goal was to spread the language throughout the world. A total of 122 representatives from 30 nations attended the conference.

However, the union home minister further said that the Department of Official Language of the Ministry of Home Affairs is making continuous efforts, by leveraging modern technology, to enrich the Indian languages to establish them as languages of public administration, education and scientific use. Shah went on to inform that the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language was constituted to periodically review the work done regarding the official language in the country and it was given the responsibility to review the progress made in the use of Hindi in government work across the country and prepare its report and present it to the President.

“I am happy to inform you that the 12th volume of this report has been presented to the President. Only 9 volumes of the report were submitted till 2014, but we have submitted 3 volumes in the last 4 years only. Since 2019, Hindi Advisory Committees have been formed in all 59 ministries and their meetings are also being organized regularly. From the point of view of increasing the use of official language in various areas of the country, a total of 528 Town Official Language Implementation Committees (TOLIC) have been formed so far.

Even in foreign countries, Town Official Language Implementation Committees have been formed in London, Singapore, Fiji, Dubai and Port-Louis. India has also taken initiatives to promote the use of the Hindi language in the United Nations,” he added.

Union Home Minister said that a new tradition of organizing the 'All India Official Language Conference' has also been started by the Department of Official Language. The first All India Official Language Conference was organized in Varanasi on 13-14 November 2021 and the second conference was organized in Surat on 14 September 2022. “This year the third All India Official Language Conference is being organized in Pune,” he said.