PM Modi, Ministers greet people on Hindi Diwas

Pic/PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, on Thursday greeted the countrymen on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

Wishing the countrymen on the Hindi Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Hindi language will continue to "strengthen the thread of national unity and goodwill."

Prime Minister Modi posted on X, "Best wishes to all my family members on Hindi Diwas. I wish that Hindi language will continue to strengthen the thread of national unity and goodwill."

The Prime Minister's message highlights the belief that languages, particularly Hindi, play a vital role in unifying a nation as diverse as India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Hindi unites the diversity of languages in India and it has honoured different Indian as well as global languages and dialects.

Extending his warm wishes, Home Minister Shah in a message said, "India has been a country of diverse languages. Hindi unites the diversity of languages in the world's largest democracy. Hindi has been a democratic language. It has honoured different Indian languages and dialects as well as many global languages and adopted their vocabularies, sentences and grammar rules."

"Every indigenous language and dialect are treasure of our couture heritage. We can build an empowered nation only by empowering every language. I believe that Hindi will become a medium to empower and promote the regional languages. Hindi will pave the way to make regional languages stronger," Amit Shah said in a video message posted on X.

Talking about the significance of Hindi during the freedom struggle of the country, the union minister said that the language instilled a feeling of unity in a country divided into many languages and dialects.

"Hindi, as a language of communication, played an important role in carrying forward the freedom struggle from East to West and North to South in the country. The movements for achieving 'Swaraj' and 'Swabhasha' were going on simultaneously in the country. Considering the important role of Hindi in the freedom movement and after independence, the architects of the Constitution had accepted Hindi as the official language on 14 September 1949," he added.

Shah said that all our Indian languages and dialects are our cultural heritage, which we have to carry with us.

He also said that Hindi never competed with other Indian languages nor it will do so in future and expressed his belief that Hindi will become a medium to empower all the local languages.

"All our Indian languages and dialects are our cultural heritage, which we have to carry with us," he said, adding that Hindi never competed with any other Indian language nor it will do so in future. Only by strengthening all our languages, a strong nation will be built.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote on X, "My best wishes on Hindi Diwas. Apart from being a medium to strengthen emotional unity and mutual harmony, Hindi is also a popular communication language.

"The popularity of Hindi has increased not only in India but in many countries of the world," he said.

BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda also took to X and wrote, "Hearty greetings to all on the occasion of Hindi Diwas. Let us take a pledge for the progress of all the languages."

Every year Hindi Diwas is observed on September 14. The day is dedicated to the Hindi language after it was announced as the official language of the Union of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had officially declared September 14 as the Hindi Diwas.

The Constituent Assembly of India declared Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, to be the official language of the Union of India on September 14, 1949. English is the second official language.

The decision to use Hindi as the official language of India was legalised by the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950.

Hindi was made one of the official languages in order to streamline government operations in a multilingual nation.

Spoken as a native language by 258 million people, Hindi is recognised as the fourth most spoken language in the world.

In 1950, Hindi was made the official language of the Union of India. The official language of India is designated as Hindi in Devanagari script in Article 343 of the Indian Constitution. Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha, had the idea for the inaugural World Hindi Conference in 1973. On January 10, 1975, Nagpur hosted the event.

Its goal was to spread the language throughout the world. A total of 122 representatives from 30 nations attended the conference.

(With inputs from Agencies)