Hindi Diwas 2024: History, Significance and Interesting Facts

Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14 to promote the Hindi language. On Sept 14, 1949, Hindi was adopted as one of the official languages of the Republic of India.

Hindi has been used as a literary language in India since the 12th century. Many Indian freedom fighters had adopted Hindi as a symbol of national identity during India’s struggle for independence.

Due to the efforts of people like Beohar Rajendra Simha, along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt, and Seth Govind Das, Hindi was accepted and recognized as one of the two official languages in India.

Languages Recognized by Indian Constitution

Both Hindi and English are used as lingua franca all over the various linguistic regions in India. Hindi is also widely spoken along the borders of India with countries like Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

For many of the educated Indians, English is virtually their first language. Most Indians, however, are multi-lingual and Hindi is usually their second language.

Most states in India also use their regional language in schools and in official transactions within their respective states.

Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada (Kanarese), Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Meithei (Manipuri), Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu are some of the regional languages spoken in India.

About Hindi

Hindi vocabulary mainly comes from Sanskrit and is written in Devanagari, a script form that existed even during the ancient times when Sanskrit was used.

There are also several dialects (mother tongues) spoken in India which are considered to have originated from Hindi.

All the Indian languages belong to two major linguistic families: the Indo-European (or the Indo-Aryan) which is utilized by around seventy percent of Indians (the hindi belt), and Dravidian groups that comprise around 20 percent (Dravidian languages are commonly used in Southern India); the others come from Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman groups and other small isolated languages.

Hindi, Increasing in Popularity

In India, Hindi is primarily spoken in the Hindi belt, comprising mainly of northern and central India.

However, Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world, after English, Spanish and Mandarin (Chinese).

Geographically, people who speak Hindi are scattered all over the world, including countries like the United States.

“We are offering Hindi class because India has become an increasingly important player in a global economy, making the language useful for those in business and finance. Lawton also has a vibrant Indian community, and making the Hindi courses available will, we hope, contribute to local awareness of Indian culture, literature and films of India,” foreign languages department of Cameron University that offers Hindi classes.

World Hindi Conference (Vishva Hindi Sammelan) is a world conference, held in various cities around the world, on Hindi language. The conference features Hindi scholars, writers and laureates from different parts of the world. The Conference deliberates on issues relating to the growth and presence of Hindi in the world. including teaching of Hindi in foreign countries, use of information technology and necessary measures to increase its popularity.

Hindi Diwas should also not be confused with World Hindi Day. National Hindi Diwas celebrates the adaptation of Hindi as India’s official language, while the focus of World Hindi Day is to promote the Hindi language at the global stage.

Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14 whereas the World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 annually.

The first World Hindi Conference was held in 1975 and was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.