According to a popular saying, learning a language is like learning a culture. And Hindi gives a glimpse of Indian culture – ancient as well as modern. According to noted linguist Ganesh N Devy of The People Linguistics Survey of India, Hindi is getting richer day by the day. It is connecting India. People from various parts of the country are adopting Hindi as a working language. Consequently, things are changing fast, English has dominance but nowadays many social scientists, science fiction writers and scholars of other disciplines are writing directly in Hindi and getting recognition.
Today, people in the Hindi heartland have taken heart from the fact that prime minister Narendra Modi took oath as prime minister in Hindi. The PM also delivered his speech in Hindi in front world leaders such as the Chinese president at the BRICS summit - which is evidence of his interest in taking ng Hindi at international forums.
Career options
There are many opportunities for those taking up Hindi as a language. One can make a name in literature; in the use of Hindi as a functional language, media and translation studies and in the IT (Hindi) sector also.
After a first degree in Hindi, if a person reads, writes and speaks correct and good Hindi, he has a good chance to rise in his career. A second degree from a good place opens up many more specialised careers. A variety of masters and other programmes are available to students who have done BA (hons) Hindi, provided they have a good flair of the language along with basic knowledge of other modern Indian languages and English.
Apart from these, there are less known opportunities in other fields related to Hindi which are mostly in IT, media and translation (machine translation, software development etc.) Hindi is growing in the IT field slowly and steadily. It is preparing encoding the Hindi language and developing many softwares, websites in Hindi. Of course, it is interesting for the younger generation. There are many opportunities for Hindi students in media.
Apart from these, there are less known opportunities in other fields related to Hindi which are mostly in IT, media and translation (machine translation, software development etc.) Hindi is growing in the IT field slowly and steadily. It is preparing encoding the Hindi language and developing many softwares, websites in Hindi. Of course, it is interesting for the younger generation. There are many opportunities for Hindi students in media.
Advertising also opens avenues for these students – they can go for scriptwriting, slogan-writing, jingle-writing, animation etc. Hindi has presence on the internet too, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done on Hindi search engines, language technology and artificial intelligence.
Skillsets required
What is commonly required in all the branches of Hindi is correct-pronunciation of standard Hindi. Students should be able to write flawlessly. They should have deep interest in real life problems and connect things logically. All round awareness is a must. They should specialise in a field of their interest.
Institutions at a glance
Most universities offer BA, BA (hons) and MA programme in Hindi. At the University of Delhi, more than 60 colleges offer an undergraduate degree and at least 20 colleges offer Hindi at the postgraduate level and also PG diploma in translation and PG diploma in Hindi journalism. Some of the popular universities offering courses in Hindi are:
* Jawaharlal Nehru University
* Banaras Hindu University
* Allahabad University
* Patna University
* MGA Hindi Vishvidyalaya Wardha
* Lucknow University
* Gorakhpur University
The author is a professor and head, Hindi department, Delhi University and was a visiting professor at Warsaw University, Poland, for three years