Every year, September 14 is observed as Hindi Diwas to commemorate the day the Constituent Assembly of India recognised and adopted Hindi as the official language of the Republic of India in 1949. Under the Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi written in Devanagari script was adopted as the official language.
Here is why Hindi Diwas is celebrated in India, and why it is so significant to our nation.
History
Hindi and English are the two official languages of the Union Government.
It all started when India became independent, and efforts were made by the then government to widen the reach of the language. However, long before this, in 1925, when India was still under the rule of the British, in it’s Karachi session the Indian National Congress decided that Hindustani, which was a blend of Hindi and Urdu, would be the language of independent India. However, when the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan came in the picture, this resolution was modified, and after a lot of efforts, it was decided that Hindi would be the only national language.
Among those who lobbied to make Hindi our national language were people like Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das, but the efforts only bore results on the fiftieth birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha, which was on 14 September, 1949. Thus marking the first time Hindi Diwas was celebrated. Beohar Rajendra Simha is best known for his illustrations in the original final manuscript of the Constitution of India.
{{/usCountry}}Among those who lobbied to make Hindi our national language were people like Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das, but the efforts only bore results on the fiftieth birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha, which was on 14 September, 1949. Thus marking the first time Hindi Diwas was celebrated. Beohar Rajendra Simha is best known for his illustrations in the original final manuscript of the Constitution of India.
{{/usCountry}}Hindi is spoken by over 250 million people, especially considering the population of Indians in and outside of the country. In India itself the language is spoken by about 43.6 per cent of the population, as per the 2011 censes. Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world.
Celebrations on the day
Hindi is given a lot of importance, especially in the schools and colleges where students participate in literary and cultural programmes, competitions in Hindi. Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan also hosts a function where the President of the country gives awards to those who have contributed to the language.
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