JAPAN HINDI

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  The Eighth schedule lists 22 official languages .There are many dialects of Hindi.

Recently, the external affairs minister said that UN should adopt Hindi along with other official languages of UN ( India wants Hindi as official language as per hindustantimes.com , Jan 3 2018) and is ready to bear Rs. 400 crore as expenses.

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Paul Richard Brass, professor of political science and international relations at the Henry M Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, in his book, Language, Religion and Politics in North India, has traced the trajectory of the battle for Hindi imperialism. Its seeds were sown in 1868. It was the year when Babu Shiva Prasad, an official in the British education department, wrote the Memorandum on Court Characters. In his book, he unabashedly stated that Persian letters of Urdu must be pushed out of courts with Hindi substituting it. He also maintained that Hindi was used synonymously with the Devanagari script. It took consistent agitations and repeated petitions to the British government for the supporters of Hindi to taste first victory in 1881 when Hindi in the Devanagari script replaced Urdu in Persian script as the official language of Bihar. 

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Now days when English language is seen as the key to success, there still are a few who pursue higher studies in Hindi. But is this marginal increase in number of students pursuing Hindi a barometer of its growing popularity? Prabhat Ranjan, who teaches at Zakir Husain Delhi College (Delhi University),  says, “The number of students is increasing, but serious students are not willing to pursue higher studies in Hindi. Day-by-day, the quality is deteriorating… students don’t show genuine interest in pursuing Hindi seriously.”

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Vineet Kumar, assistant professor at Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, DU, sees a common downtrend in language studies in general, and not just Hindi. “The study of literature and language is mostly done by those who do not get admission in other subjects or courses,” adding, “The number of students pursuing Hindi has increased not because of a prospective career or interest in it, but because there is no other option for them. However, there are a small number of students who see literature as a subject and method of living life rather than just a course.”

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Hindi has been the language of some of the greatest writers of all times, including Surdas, Munshi Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad, Bharatendu Harishchandra, Krishna Sobti, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Devaki Nandan Khatri, among others, who have proudly used it as a medium to further their reformist agenda, and, in doing so, took it to an elevated level. However, till recently, Hindi literature was fighting a slump till the advent of digital media. Like all things rosy and glorious associated with a new medium, the rise of online publishing and social media appears to be inadvertently beneficial for Hindi authors and its readers, especially in the pulp fiction category.

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We Indians are highly affected and impressed by foreigners and many of us feel good by speaking English. But only a small percentage of people speaks and understands English well.

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These days we speak Hinglish, a mixture of Hindi and English. It must be ensured that Hindi is used in a simple manner so that that the masses can understand it easily.

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it is hard to ignore Hindi’s electoral significance. The national language is believed to control the political fortune of the country as it is the Hindi heartland, spread over north and central parts, that decides who the next prime minister would be.

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 We equally strongly recommend the inclusion of it in the school curriculum everywhere. English is compulsory in many European states on account of its importance. So also must Hindi be studied by people of all parts of India on account of its importance.

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While authors and publishers of Hindi literature are doing their bit to contribute to spreading and preserving the language, there still are many hurdles on the road to getting Hindi its due.

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It was in 1918 that Mahatma Gandhi had called for Hindi to be given the status of the country’s national language. He had said all talks of a ‘swarajya’ would be meaningless unless Hindi was provided national language status and other regional languages were given their adequate importance.

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Every year, September 14 is observed as Hindi Diwas because on this day in 1949, the Constituent Assembly had adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of India. 

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Hindi is the 4th commonly spoken language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. There is a significant chunk of the humanity that speaks Hindi.  However, its scholarly radiance will only enhance if serious attempt is made to propagate the language. As Mridula Sinha – a renowned scholar and newly appointed governor of Goa – rightly put it a function in Mumbai on September 14: “Hindi needs to be made a language that touches the heart and feeds the stomach.” (Hindi ko Hridya and pet ki bhasha banane ki avashyakta hai).

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We promote Hindi but no language should be forced on any person. The three-language formula of Hindi, English and a regional language should be promoted for better harmony and understanding of the diverse nature of the Indians. It will also result in much better political, economic and social development of India.

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