| Title |
HINDI DAY |
|
Date-wise Events |
- September 14, 1949:
HINDI DAY - The date on which the Constituent Assembly of India adopted
Hindi as the Official Language of the Union of India.
- May 28, 1917: After his
return from South Africa in 1915, Mahatma Gandhi insisted on
greater usage of Hindi (and other regional languages). His
article in Pratap (Hindi) on this day advocated recognizing
Hindi as the national language.
- October 20, 1917: Mahatma
Gandhi's long speech at 2nd Gujarat Educational Conference
at Bharuch on this day is considered a classic. Therein he
paid tributes to the pioneering efforts of Swami Dayanand
Saraswati in popularizing Hindi.
- January 26, 1965: Article
343 (1) of the Constitution of India states "The Official
Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in
Devanagari script." Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the
use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years
after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January
1965.
- As this date approached, it led to widespread
agitation, riots, self-immolations and suicides in Tamil
Nadu. As a result, the proposal was dropped, and the Act
itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of
English would not be ended until a resolution to that
effect was passed by the legislature of every state that
had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by
each house of the Indian Parliament. The Constitution of
India does not give any language the status of National
Language.
- February 17, 1987: Until
the passage of the Constitution (FiftyEighth) Amendment Act
on this day, no updated version of the Constitution
(containing the amendments) could be issued in Hindi. Hindi
is no way in sight of replacing English in government even
after 70 years. Our Constitution makers had allotted merely
15 years for this task.
- July 27, 2017: The
Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi made it mandatory for
MPhil and PhD students to fill their dissertation submission
forms in both Hindi and English. Students who didn't know
Hindi complained as they couldn't submit their dissertation.
The university said the step was taken so that there is no
spelling error on the certificates given to students.
- July 31, 2017: The Kannada
Development Authority (KDA) demanded that Hindi should not
be offered in Karnataka's schools claiming that Hindi was
being imposed in the guise of an optional third language.
This came after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote
to the Centre asking for the removal of Hindi signboards
from Bengaluru Metro stations following demands made by the
KDA.
- August 15, 2017: Karnataka
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that imposition of any
language other than the local language of a state is
unconstitutional. He added that such imposition was against
the spirit of formation of states on linguistic basis.
Notably, Hindi signboards have been removed from Bengaluru's
Metro stations after pro-Kannada groups protested against
'Hindi imposition'.
- September 12, 2017: Indian
President Ram Nath Kovind, expressed his happiness to learn
that Belarus government would soon begin teaching Hindi at
the Belarusian State University. He said so while
delivering his speech at the banquet hosted in honour of H.
E. Mr. Alexander Lukashenko, the President of the Republic
of Belarus on this day.
|
|
Description |
- Modern Hindi is a standardized and sankritised register
of the Hindustani language.
- Hindustani is the native language of Delhi, Haryana,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan.
- It is considered to be the sixth largest language in the
world.
- Urdu is another variety of Hindustani language which
identical to Hindi in basic structure and grammar and even
dialect. Only the scripts and the sources of specialized
vocabulary are different; Hindi draws these from Sanskrit
whereas Urdu does these from Persian and Arabic.
- The Indian constitution declared Hindi as the official
language of the Federal Government of India; and, it shall
be written in the Devanagari script.
- However, English continues to be used as an official
language along with Hindi. Hindi is also enumerated as one
of the twenty-two languages of the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution of India, which entitles it to representation
on the Official Language Commission.
- Hindi and English are the two languages of communication
for the Union Government.
- Most government documentation is prepared in three
languages: English, Hindi, and the primary official language
of the local state, if it is not Hindi or English.
- Originally, the Constitution of India envisaged that
Hindi would become the sole working language of the Union
Government by 1965. However this goal could not be achieved
because the resistance shown by some states against the
imposition of Hindi. Consequently, the Official Languages
Act of 1963 was passed, which provided for the continued use
of English indefinitely for all official purposes. However,
the constitutional directive for the Union Government to
encourage the spread of Hindi was retained.
- Bihar accepted Hindi as its official language in place
of Urdu, thereby becoming the first State to adopt Hindi.
- Modern standard Hindi is comprised of words of 5
categories: Tatsam – borrowed from Sanskrit and spelt and
spoken the same way.
- Ardhatatsam – Words borrowed from Sanskrit, but have
undergone sound and spelling changes.
- Tadbhav – Words derived from Sanskrit words and spelt
differently.
- Deshaj – Not borrowed or derived from Sanskrit but
formed based on sounds, e.g. of animals. For instance the
sound of a dog is ‘Bhon Bhon’, so the word is formed
accordingly.
- Videshi – the words borrowed from other languages, such
as Persian, Arabic, and English.
- Hindi literature can be divided into four main
categoties or styles, such as: Bhakti (devotional), Shrigaar
(Beauty), Veer-Gaatha (Bravery tales) and Adhunik (modern).
- Hindi has a presence on internet, but with some
limitations. Its alphabet is explained below:
- Hindi Vowels:
- अ (a), आ (aa), इ (i), ई (ee), उ (u), ऊ (oo), ए
(e), ऐ (ae), ओ (o), औ (au)
- Hindi consonants:
- क (ka), ख (kha), ग (ga), घ (gha), ङ (ṅa),
- च (cha), छ (chha), ज (ja), झ (jha), ञ (ña),
- ट (ta), ठ (tha), ड (da), ढ (dha), ण (ṇa),
- त (ta), थ (tha), द (da), ध (dha), न (na),
- प (pa), फ (pha), ब (ba), भ (bha), म (ma),
- य (ya), र (ra), ल (la), व (va), श (sha),
- ष (ṣa), स (sa), ह (ha)
- Devnagari digits:
- १ (1), २ (2), ३ (3), ४ (4), ५ (5), ६ (6), ७ (7),
८ (8), ९ (9), ० (0)
|
|
