Future belongs to Hindi, must shed colonial mindset on language: Shah

Hindi is on course to becoming a global language and is already the second language in 10 countries, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday, while addressing an event on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

‘Centre has addressed n-e security concerns’

• Home Minister Amit Shah said substantial progress had been achieved in solving legacy national security concerns like terrorism in J&K, Left wing extremism and insurgency in the North-East
• His comments come at a time when the Centre is yet to find a credible solution to the 16-month ethnic strife in Manipur, where more than 200 persons have been killed and 50,000 displaced

Hindi Diwas is celebrated annually on September 14 to mark the adoption of the language as India’s official language. This year, the day has become even more significant as it is the 75th anniversary of Hindi’s journey as an official language. Pledging to make Hindi more acceptable, flexible and behavioural, Shah asked all ministries to start corresponding in Hindi.

“It has taken me three years to ensure that all Home Ministry files come to me in Hindi. I have eventually succeeded. Now, the entire official correspondence of both my ministries is happening in Hindi. I urge other ministries to do so too,” Shah said.

He reiterated that Hindi was not in competition to Indian languages, but had a complementary role. “Hindi takes nourishment from other Indian languages and vice versa. Both will grow by learning from each other,” said the minister.

He said teachers across India should also start communicating with students in Hindi. “There is no cause for anyone to push children to learn any other language. In the coming times, Hindi will be the language of the world. We have to shed colonial legacy in languages too,” said Shah a day after his ministry renamed Port Blair as Sri Vijaya Puram.

The Home Minister added that the first batch of Indian students who had taken MBBS instruction in Hindi had reached the fourth semester in Madhya Pradesh. Efforts were on to translate technical, medical and legal education books in Hindi, he said.

Tracing the history of Hindi, Shah recalled how it was the late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who first used Hindi to address the UN General Assembly. “Today, many years later Hindi is a UN language and a second language of 10 countries,” he added.