Hindi not in competition with other languages: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Hindi unites the diversity of languages in India and it has honoured different Indian as well as global languages and dialects.

In a message on the occasion of 'Hindi Diwas', Shah also said Hindi has never competed nor will compete with any other Indian language and that a strong country will emerge only by strengthening all its languages.

The home minister expressed confidence that Hindi will become a medium to empower all the local languages.

"India has been a country of diverse languages. Hindi unites the diversity of languages in the world's largest democracy. 

"Hindi has been a democratic language. It has honoured different Indian languages and dialects as well as many global languages and adopted their vocabularies, sentences and grammar rules," Shah said.

He said the Hindi language has played an unprecedented role in uniting the country during the difficult days of freedom struggle and instilled a feeling of unity in a country that has several languages and dialects.

Hindi, as a language of communication, has played an important role in carrying forward the freedom struggle from east to west and from north to south, Shah said.

He said the movements for achieving "Swaraj" and "Swabhasha" were going on simultaneously in the country.

Considering the important role of Hindi in the freedom movement and after independence, the architects of the Constitution accepted it as the official language on September 14, 1949, the home minister said, adding that a country's original and creative expression is possible only through its own language.

Shah said all Indian languages and dialects are the country's cultural heritage, which have to be carried forward.

He said Indian languages have received due recognition and respect at national and global forums under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shah said the Department of Official Language of the Ministry of Home Affairs is making continuous efforts, by leveraging modern technology, to enrich the Indian languages to establish those as languages of public administration, education and scientific use.

He said under the prime minister's guidance, public welfare schemes are being implemented effectively by establishing communication between the government and the public in Indian languages.

The home minister pointed out that the principle of language change says "language moves from complexity to simplicity".

He said in his opinion, simple and clear words of Hindi should be used in office work.

Shah said the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language was constituted to periodically review the work done in the country's official language.

It was given the responsibility to review the progress made in the use of Hindi in government work across the country and prepare its report and present it to the president, he added.

From the point of view of increasing the use of the official language in various areas, Shah said a total of 528 town official language implementation committees (TOLICs) have been formed so far.

Such committees have even been formed abroad, such as in London, Singapore, Fiji, Dubai and Port-Louis.

Shah said India has also taken initiatives to promote the use of Hindi in the United Nations (UN).

He said a new tradition of organising the 'All India Official Language Conference' has also been started by the Department of Official Language.

The home minister said in order to develop the official language according to technology, the Department of Official Language has created a memory-based translation system called "Kanthastha".

Taking a new initiative, the department has also created the 'Hindi Shabd Sindhu' dictionary, Shah pointed out.