Hindi Divas celebration is observed every year on September 14 in almost all the Educational Institutions, State, UT and Central Governments offices besides, seminars, symposiums, kavi sammelans, Ghosthies etc across India.
Schools and colleges in India on this day organize literary and cultural programs, competitions in Hindi where all students participate.
India in 1953 decided to celebrate Hindi Day on September 14. Most of the educational institute's organise poem, essays, and recitation competitions and encourage students to take part and celebrate the language and be proud of it. You can witness a number of literary activities as well as celebrations to commemorate the memorable day.
Impact of Covid-19 pandemic though affected the celebration of Hindi Diwas in many institutions in J&K but numerous functions and events have been organised in many public offices showing the high spirit and love for Hindi at least in a large area of Jammu Province.
Notably, Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world after English, Spanish and Mandarin. Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages of India, with most of North India celebrating the language as their mother tongue. Every year on Hindi Diwas, the President of India presents the Rajbhasha awards to people for their contribution towards the language at a ceremony in Delhi.
The history of Hindi Divas begins from September 14, 1949, when the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi as the official language of the newly formed nation. The decision was then accepted and it became a part of the Indian constitution on January 26, 1950. The first Hindi Diwas was celebrated in 1953. People like Beohar Rajendra Simha, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt, and Seth Govind Das lobbied hard in favor of Hindi to be made the official language of India. Beohar Rajendra Simha is best known for his illustrations in the original final manuscript of the Constitution of India.
Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language, written in the Devanagari script as one of the official languages of India. Hindi is one of the two official languages of the Union government — the other being English. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Hindi Diwas is dedicated to promote and propagate the official language. Also, this day is celebrated; as a patriotic reminder to Indian populations of their common roots and unity.
But in contrast to its celebration, a strong reservation of Hindi in many non-Hindi speaking areas is visible on social media and also through many public statements by the local leaders. Their argument too is valid that India is a land of diverse language, culture and traditions and according to them several means are being used to impose Hindi on people speaking other languages. Numerous reactions on social media have termed that the Hindi Diwas is also an underhand method to impose Hindi.
They say that Hindi is not our national language and there is no such concept in our constitution but there have been attempts to project it as a national language and “do politics over it.”
True, there should not be any aggressive attempt on thrusting Hindi over the Non-Hindi speaking people, there is no harm in celebrating Hindi as an official language by free choice. It will be a handy tool for the Non-Hindi speaking people to interact with people of Hindi heartland more conveniently and confidently. This will enhance mutual understanding in a better way.
As we know Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. According to Article 343, “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in the Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purpose of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.” Hindi was the language that was adopted by Indian leaders as a symbol of national identity during the struggle for freedom. Hindi has been used as a literary language since the twelfth century.
