By Ramesh Sarraf Dhamora
Hindi is an Indian Indo-European language that has evolved from Sanskrit and is written in the Devanagari script. Sanskrit, Marathi, Nepali and many other Indian languages are also written in the Devanagari script. Devanagari means “script of the gods” or “script of the city”. It is made up of two Sanskrit words ‘Deva’ (God/God) and ‘Nagri’ (adjective derived from Nagar/City). Devanagari is a Brahmi-based alphabet used to write many languages of India such as Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit. That is why Hindi language is called a direct descendant of Sanskrit language.
Hindi language provides a very easy and simple medium to communicate with each other. It is a language of love, union and harmony. Hindi plays an important role in binding diverse India into a unified thread. But what an irony it is that why is there so much neglect and disregard for a language which is understood all over India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari? People of every class can easily speak and understand Hindi. That is why it is called the language of the common people i.e. Janbhasha.
Hindi is the official language of the Government of India and the number of Hindi speakers is the highest in India. Hindi language means “related to India or Hind”. It is the official official language of India and is the third most spoken language in the world. Its history is linked to ancient Sanskrit and Prakrit languages. Hindi language was born in India itself. As a language, Hindi is not only the identity of India. But it is also a true reflection of our life values, culture and sanskars. Along with being a very simple, easy and accessible language, Hindi is probably the most scientific language in the world. There are a large number of people all over the world who understand, speak and like it. Bharatendu Harishchandra is called the father of modern Hindi. Who contributed to many languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and Marwari.
After the independence of India, on 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly unanimously decided that the Khariboli version of Hindi would be the official language of India. After this important decision, since 1953, 14 September is celebrated as Hindi Day every year in the whole of India, which shows the importance of Hindi language. If we talk about the development of Hindi language, then it would not be wrong to say that Hindi has developed a lot in the last hundred years. The history of Hindi language is considered to be about a thousand years old. Despite the diversity in religion, traditions and language in India, people here believe in unity. Different languages are spoken in India. But the most spoken, written and read language is Hindi. That is why Hindi is the most prominent language of India. Most of the words of Hindi are taken from Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian languages. It is mainly the gift of Aryans and Parsis. For this reason, Hindi is a capable language in itself. Whereas English has only 10 thousand original words. The number of original words in Hindi is more than 2 lakh 50 thousand. Apart from being an ancient, rich and great language of the world, Hindi is also our official language.
Hindi is also the official language of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi. After becoming the official language, Hindi has done an innovative work of establishing contact with the people in the work of various states. But to become a world language, Hindi still needs the support of two-thirds of the total member countries of the United Nations. The Government of India is working rapidly in this direction. We can express the possibility that soon Hindi will be included in the official language of the United Nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi mostly gives his address in Hindi language during his foreign visits. Due to which the importance of Hindi language has started increasing even on foreign soil.
Hindi has established its utility, relevance and dominance in all mediums of language, grammar, literature, art, music. This status of Hindi is the gift of Hindi speakers and Hindi society. But a section of the Hindi speaking society is also responsible for the bad state of Hindi. A person who speaks English is more knowledgeable and intellectual. This notion brings inferiority complex in Hindi speaking people. To get success in life, everyone wants to speak and learn English. Hindi speaking people have to overcome this inferiority complex because original thoughts come only in the mother tongue. The medium of education should also be the mother tongue. Education teaches to think and original thoughts can come only in the language in which a person lives. We should realize that Hindi is not weaker than any other language in the world.
After English and Mandarin Chinese language, Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world. Most of the population of Nepal and Pakistan knows how to speak, write and read Hindi. In Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar and Afghanistan too, lakhs of people speak and understand Hindi. The governments of countries like Fiji, Surinam, Guyana and Trinidad are run by Hindi speakers. The number of Hindi speakers in the whole world is more than one billion.
From ancient times till now, Hindi Acharyas, saints, poets, scholars, writers and Hindi lovers have enriched Hindi with their books and compositions. But it is also our duty to express our thoughts, feelings and opinions in Hindi through various genres and contribute to its prosperity. Any language is considered even more rich when its literature is also rich. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the international development of Hindi has been very fast. Arrangements have been made for the study and teaching of Hindi from university level to research level in about 150 universities and hundreds of small and big centres of the world. Dozens of Hindi newspapers and magazines are being published regularly from abroad. Hindi language and the cultural heritage of India contained in it are strong and rich. Its pace of development is very fast.
Due to the simultaneous development of technology and economic prosperity in the country, Hindi has lost its importance somewhere. Today, the use of English words in Hindi language has started increasing rapidly. In many big newspapers also, English mixed Hindi is being used. Which is not a good sign for the Hindi language. The remaining task has been completed by social media. Where with the help of software, English language is converted into Hindi language. In which neither the vowel nor the correct spelling is taken care of. In present times, newspapers and magazines in Hindi language are closing down one after the other.
On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, we should take a pledge that we will wholeheartedly give our selfless support in the promotion of Hindi language and make a positive effort to make India the world leader again on the strength of Hindi language. Now all the work is being done in Hindi language even on computers. There are numerous Hindi language software available on computers with the help of which we can work easily.
(The author is a freelance journalist accredited by the Rajasthan Government.)
