Russia witnesses growing interest in Hindi, government increases number of institutions teaching language

Moscow: Three decades after the Soviet Union collapse, Russia is witnessing a growing interest in students wanting to learn Hindi and the government is increasing the number of institutions teaching the language.

Russia's Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Konstantin Mogilevsky said "we want more of our students to learn Hindi".

"India is the world's most populous country today, and more and more Indians are starting to use Hindi in their daily lives instead of English. We need to learn Hindi and other Eastern languages," Mogilevsky told the Russian News Agency TASS.

Russia’s Higher Education and Science Ministry has registered a growing interest in students wanting to learn Hindi and is already taking steps to extend the number of educational institutions teaching the language.

Indira Gaziyeva of Russian State University of Humanities (RSUH) said the Russian print and electronic media "mostly reflects the Indian realities through the Western narrative".

"The younger generation of Russians are taking interest in deeper study of modern India and its ancient civilisational heritage,” she said.

The Russian Ministry of Education and Science plans to create more opportunities for students to study oriental languages. In particular, this concerns Hindi, the demand for which among modern students has already grown significantly.

"Young people who want to study Hindi today have more opportunities than before. In Moscow alone, there is MGIMO School of International Relations, RSUH, the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University and the Moscow State Linguistic University,” Mogilevsky was quoted as saying by TASS.

"Hindi is also taught at St. Petersburg State University, Kazan Federal University and other universities.The number of students enrolled in Hindi courses is increasing, and the number of groups is two to three times larger," he added.

After the Soviet collapse, the oldest boarding school teaching Hindi in Moscow was shut down by the city government, because it found teaching Hindi redundant at a time when Radio Moscow had shut its Hindi broadcasts and "Progress" and “Raduga” publishing houses had ceased to publish translations of Russian authors.

The Moscow International Book Fair held earlier this month had invited India as the “ Guest of Honour Country”. Local scholars of India had warmly welcomed the release of the unique “Hindi-Russian Idioms Dictionary”, a collective project of several Indian scholars and translators containing around 2000 Hindi idioms.

“Throughout our work we kept in mind that the dictionary is bilingual and is being made for those learners of Hindi whose language, traditions, geographical topology etc. are quite different from ours, and the meanings given in the dictionary should very clearly explain when and how each idiom can be used,” one of the lead compilers of the dictionary Pragati Tipnese told PTI.

She told about the immense interest in the Hindi-Russian Idioms dictionary from Russian institutions that teach Hindi and said the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) is considering to help them to procure this dictionary.