Today, we are celebrating National Hindi Day 2021. Hindi is not only among the most spoken languages in the world, it is also the official language of India, alongside English, featuring in government documents of the Union. Hindi is also the official language of Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Hindi was the language that was adopted by Indian leaders as a symbol of national identity during the struggle for freedom. Of Persian origin, the word Hindi is comprised of the words Hind meaning ‘India’ and ī, meaning ‘of’. Hence Hindi translates as ‘Indian’.
It has been used as a literary language since the 12th century. The development of prose, however, began only in the 18th century, which marks the emergence of Hindi as a full-fledged literary language. In the new millennium, more importance is given to the English language.
To stop the neglect of Hindi, every year on 14th September, National Hindi Day is celebrated across the country. Both these days are special for Hindi lovers, but there is a difference between World Hindi Day or Vishwa Hindi Diwas and National Hindi Day. People often get confused about the two days, because they don’t know the difference between the two. For this purpose, we are setting the facts right for the knowledge of our readers.
Difference between the World and National Hindi Days
When the country became independent from the British rule in the year 1947, a big question arose regarding the official language. This question was important, so after much deliberation, Hindi first got the status of official language on September 14, 1949. The Constituent Assembly accepted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of India. Since then, Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on 14th September in view of the importance of this day, and to honour Hindi writers, thinkers and philosophers.
The aim of Vishwa Hindi Diwas is to promote Hindi at the global level. Every year, 10th January is celebrated as World Hindi Day, beginning from 2006. Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, started this tradition with the aim to popularize the language in other parts of the world. For the first time in history, a conference for Hindi Day was organized in Nagpur on 10 January 1975.
There was a time when people considered English-speaking a status symbol, but now Hindi is spoken with great pride, in person and on digital platforms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made Hindi more prominent in regular usage. A major channel for the spread of Hindi is culture and, specifically, Bollywood movies. Social scientists have long suggested that Bollywood is the critical vehicle for the spread of Hindi.
