No competition between Hindi and local languages, they are friends: Shah

NEW DELHI: There can never be a competition between Hindi and other Indian languages as they are friends and complement each other, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.

Addressing the fourth Akhil Bhartiya Rajbhasha Sammelan on Hindi Diwas, Shah said the promotion of Hindi cannot happen until all other Indian languages are strengthened and the official language establishes a dialogue with all of them.

"There can never be a competition between Hindi and local languages because Hindi is a friend of all local languages. Hindi and all local languages complement each other. Therefore, the relationship between Hindi and all local languages will be strengthened," he said.

The home minister said the 'Hindi Diwas' is an occasion to take a pledge to make Hindi a communication language, a common language, a technical language and now an international language.

"We are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee to mark the completion of 75 years of Hindi as the official language. By accepting Hindi as the official language and connecting all the local languages of the country through Hindi, we are moving towards preserving and promoting our culture, languages, literature, art and grammar," he said.

Shah said Hindi is more of a geo-cultural language rather than a geo-political language. He said all communications through files of his two ministries -- Home and Cooperation -- are done through Hindi.

"It took three years to reach this stage," he said.

Noting that the Constituent Assembly of India accepted Hindi as the official language of the Union on September 14, 1949, Shah said the 75-year journey of the language is in the final stage of achieving its objectives and now is the time to make Hindi a language of communication, people, technology and an international language as well.

The home minister said in the new education policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed imparting primary education in the mother tongue.

He said the easiest language for a child to process linguistic expression, thinking, understanding, reasoning, analysis and reaching a decision is through his or her mother tongue.

It is time to strengthen all the languages of India and to make the official language the connecting language of the country through which everyone can carry out the work of the country in their respective languages, he said.

The home minister said the central government is working towards the use of Hindi in education, technical education, and the judiciary.

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand have today made the entire curriculum of medical education in Hindi and work is underway to prepare engineering curriculum in about 13 languages of India in the coming days, he said.

During the event, the home minister released a book - 'Hindi Kahavat Kosh' - authored by Sharad Agrawal, a well-known physician from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly.

For the benefit of society, Agrawal has also made a website 'healthhindi.in' to spread useful knowledge about common diseases and their prevention, in simple Hindi language.

To preserve Hindi proverbs and to make them available to the common people Agarwal authored this book, in which he has collected more than 10,000 proverbs and more than 200 stories related to the formation of proverbs.

Earlier, extending greetings on Hindi Diwas, Shah said it was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly that all citizens of the country should communicate with each other in an Indian language, be it Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Gujarati.

"By strengthening Hindi, all these languages will also become flexible and prosperous and with the practice of integration, all languages will also take forward our culture, history, literature, grammar and the 'sanskar'," he said in a video message.

The home minister said the Hindi Diwas this year is very important for everyone because, on September 14, 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India accepted Hindi as the official language of the Union.

"Hindi has seen many ups and downs in 75 years but at this juncture, I can definitely say that Hindi has no competition with any local language. Hindi is a friend (sakhi) of all Indian languages and they complement each other. Whether it is Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil or Bangla, every language strengthens Hindi and Hindi strengthens every language," he said.

The home minister in the last 10 years of Modi's leadership, a lot of work has been done to strengthen Hindi and local languages.

"Modi ji has proudly addressed many international forums in Hindi and has put forward the importance of Hindi not only in the country but across the world. Along with this, the prime minister has also increased the sense of pride towards the country's languages. In these 10 years, we have made a lot of efforts to strengthen several Indian languages," he said.