Hindi in the world: In the era of cultural-flattening, India must strengthen its linguistic traditions

Why in News?

• India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently inaugurated the 12th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan (World Hindi Conference) in Nadia, Fiji and emphasized to promote Hindi language across the world.
• He highlighted that the era of aping western languages and traditions is over and many languages and traditions which were suppressed during the colonial era are again raising their voice on the global stage.

 

World Hindi Conference

• The first World Hindi Conference was organised in 1975 in Nagpur. Till date, 11 World Hindi Conferences have been organised in different parts of the world. The last conference was held in Mauritius in 2018.
• During the Conference, Hindi scholars from India and other countries are honoured with “Vishwa Hindi Samman” for their special contribution to the field of Hindi, as per past practice.
•  The current 12th World Hindi Conference is being organized from 15^th to 17^th February, 2023 by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in association with the Government of Fiji.
•  The main theme of the present conference is “Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence”.
•  It aims to focus upon various aspects of the Hindi language, its global use, and its dissemination.
  • Also the issues like the status of Hindi in Fiji, the Pacific region and indentured countries will be pondered upon.
  • Hence this conference highlighting Hindi language sends a strong message both as a bonding across societies as well as being an expression of identity. 

 

What is the expanse of Hindi language globally?

• The world language database, Ethnologue brings out an yearly database of living languages of the world since its establishment in 1951.
• Hindi is the 3rd most spoken language of the world in 2019 with 615 million speakers. Its 22nd edition revealed Hindi as the 3rd most spoken language in the world with 615 million speakers after English, Mandarin.
• With 577.10 million native speakers worldwide, Hindi has the highest prevalence in India.
• As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 44 percent is on the Fijis.   

 

Why there need to promote Hindi language globally?

• As more countries gained independence over the last 75 years, it resulted in a rebalancing of the international system, initially, from an economic aspect and later as a political facet as well.
• Thus trend in the global order is gradually creating greater multi-polarity and also enhancing the need for a cultural rebalancing.
• In such a situation, the world must be informed about all cultures and societies and it can be promoted by broadening the teaching and usage of native languages, including Hindi.

o   Mother Language Day (February 21) is also hence celebrated to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

•  In the pre-independence era, English befriended Hindi. But in a globalised world, Hindi also needs to engage with other foreign languages, especially in the neighbourhood.
  • From Sinhala to Uzbek and Bhutani to Khmer, Hindi and other Indian languages have to build more linguistic bridges.

 

Promotion of Hindi in Fiji

• Fiji is the only country outside India that has Hindi as an official language.
•  Hindi is being taught from primary to secondary schools and offered as a language of study in university.
• The new coalition government in Fiji recently announced that Hindi along with English and our indigenous language will also be spoken in Parliament.

 

What are India’s efforts to promote Hindi language?

• Though Hindi is not officially the national language of India, it is the strongest link language besides being one of the two official languages.
  • Article 343 of the Constitution prescribes Hindi as written in Devanagari script as the official language of the Union.
  • According to the 2011 census, 528 million Indians speak Hindi as against Bengali (97.2 million), Marathi (83 million) Telugu (81 million) and Tamil (69 million) speakers.

•  India is also working to ensure the “rightful place” for Hindi at the United Nations. For example, the UN has made a provision to provide all the important messages and press releases in Hindi along with Bangla and Urdu languages.
• With a delegation of 270 academics, experts and Hindi writers from India to participate recently in the World Hindi Conference, Fiji, it signifies India’s outreach to the world highlighting links between Hindi-speaking people in India and the Pacific Ocean region.
• Development of the Hindi language: Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of an official language Commission by the President to make recommendations to the President for the progressive use of Hindi for official purposes of the Union.

o   Article 351 also provides directive for development of the Hindi language, stating that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language.

 

Owing pride in native languages

• The language issue gets recklessly indulged in politics and linguistic chauvinism. However, the next-generation family members of such politicians are schooled in English medium.

o   This is unlike in France, Germany or Spain as speaking in Hindi or regional languages is considered inferior in India, due to colonial mentality.

o   Hence, the ability to converse in English has become a status symbol sadly.

• For Indian languages to go global, they thus need to be first respected in their motherland. It could be done by saving Hindi and other Indian languages from the onslaught of English and Hindi.
• Hindi-speaking people should also ensure that the respect and recognition denied by the English-speaking elite, is generously offered to all other Indian languages.
• Also the acclaimed literary works in Indian languages that are translated into English must also be translated in Hindi.
  • The quality translations from Indian languages to other Indian and world languages are a must for all Indian languages to grow together.
•  A mechanism can also be evolved for translating award-winning literary works in Indian languages into all UN languages.
• The emphasis in New Education Policy on education in the mother tongue is also significant in this respect as Engineering and medical education in Hindi is now a reality, owing to policy push.
  • Other Indian languages also need to follow suit to effectively evolve as languages of the knowledge era.

 

Conclusion

• Usage is the lifeblood of any language. If we stop using a language its likely existence will be under threat. Thus, Hindi and other Indian languages need to strengthen their roots and expand their horizons.
• Also an individual relates to a language if s/he is able to know or appreciate the ethos around the respective language and its ornamental proverbs and sayings.
• Hence, understanding our very own cultural moorings, taking legitimate pride in our history and our heritage is the prerequisite of our efforts for the sustenance of languages.
• The path of saving the world from cultural-flattening hence goes via strengthening our linguistic traditions that are “ever ageing but never old”.

 

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Q1) Who organises Mother Language Day?

International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance by UNESCO held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. 

 

Q2) What does the eighth schedule relate to?

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the 22 official languages of the Republic of India from Articles 343 to 351.

 

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Source: Indian express  |  The Hindu

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5GCtXmNcPY&t=5708s