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World Hindi Day is celebrated every year to raise awareness of Hindi as an international language across the globe. This day is specially commemorated by Indian embassies abroad. This day also focuses on developing a passion for the Hindi language. Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world after English and Mandarin according to Statista. It is among the two official languages along with English in India. Hindi is the most spoken language in Indian homes with over 528 million native speakers according to 2011 census data. It is not only India where Hindi is spoken. This language is also spoken in several other countries, such as Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago and Nepal.
Writers such as Maithili Sharan Gupta, Kaka Kalelkar, Seth Govindadas and Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, made important contributions in making Hindi our official language.
Why World Hindi Day is commemorated on January 10?
World Hindi Day is commemorated to mark the first World Hindi Conference. The conference was held on 10 January 1975 in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated the conference and a total of 122 delegates from 30 countries participated in the conference. In 2006, Dr Manmohan Singh announced that 10 January would be celebrated as World Hindi Day every year. This was also the first time that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs started celebrating this day abroad.
On this day, various schools and colleges across India encourage students to participate in many cultural and literary programs. Programs run include essays, poetry competitions and language letter writing. Special programs to mark this day are held not only in India but also in Indian embassies across the globe.
Difference between World Hindi Day and National Hindi Diwas
There is often a confusion between World Hindi Day and National Hindi Diwas. However, these are two different commemorations. National Hindu Diwas marks the adoption of Hindi as one of the official languages by the Constituent Assembly of India in 1949. This day is celebrated every year on September 14 in India. The Devanagari script of Hindi was adopted as the official language of India under Article 343.
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