Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding said Ban Ki Moon during the 8th World Hindi Conference on Hindi at United Nation headquarter in New York and surprised many by inaugurating the ceremony with Namaste! Kya Hal Chal hai?
September 14 is celebrated as Hindi Day and was adopted as the official language of Constituent assembly in 1949 on this day.
The Constitution of India adopted Hindi in Devanagri Script as the official language of the union under Article (343) in 1950.
It was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the central government by 1965, and state government will function in their own choice. But it did not happen and English is also used along with Hindi.
This decision of using Hindi met a widespread anti Hindi agitation by the non native speaker of Hindi. As a result the Official Language Act of 1963 was passed and English continued to be use as official language for indefinite period.
Hindi has a history behind; it belongs to Indo–Aryan branch of indo European language family. The word ‘Hindi’ itself is a gift of Persian, Mughals added to its flavour, Amir Khusro was first to write Hindi Poem.
Though it evolved from Sanskrit but many of its words originated from Arabic or Persian language.
This is also called as a ‘link language’, as it has united the vast Indian Diaspora and also minimized the gap between South and North India.
This language has travelled a long distance to make its presence felt in the World. It is spoken in many parts of the world and its one of the main language in Mauritius, Surinam, Trinidad and many others including US, South Africa, New Zealand etc.
If it is the mother tongue of 180 million people then it is also the second language of 300 million people.
Gandhi used this language to unite the whole India and used this language as ‘language of unity’. The word Swadeshi revolutionise the freedom struggle, and its entry into the Oxford dictionary marks its importance in world history.
Statistics are available which tells that Hindi is the second most spoken language of the world.
This entry in the world scenario was not a smooth ride. It faced lots of criticism and politics was played in its name.
Now its importance are realised, George Bush proposed a budget of $ 114 million to make Hindi a part of curriculum, to be taught from Kindergarten to graduate level. India too mooted a strategy to make Hindi as one of the official language of United Nation.
Hundreds of word has made an entry into the prestigious Oxford dictionary and others. Pundit, Guru, Nirvana, Adda, Roti are very much accepted in the whole world.
The wave of change can be seen everywhere, the same South India which was always divided on accepting Hindi as a national language. Deve Gawda in 1997 talked of promoting Hindi, then Karunanidhi recited a Hindi verse during a political campaign, and Jayalalitha against the anti-Hindi lobby campaigned in Hindi.
Hindi being a live language is gaining popularity and on the way to become a global language.
Let it be accepted by the free wills of people. Somebody said Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides.