Hindi Diwas Celebrations

A prestigious programme to observe Hindi Diwas was held at the NCUI Auditorium on 14 September 2019. Ms Shikha Sharma and Ms Sushila Negi from the Department of Hindi attended the event.

The chief guest on the occasion was Mr Akhilesh Mishra, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Eminent speakers present were Shri Madhusudhan Anand, Director-Bhartiya Jnanpith, Mrs Jayanti Ranganathan- Editor, Nandan-Hindustan, Shri Rajeev Kumar Shukla former Director General, Aakashvani, Mr Saeed Ansari anchor, Aaj Tak and Dr Neelkanth Kumar Assistant Professor, NCERT.

The inaugural speech by Dr Pradeep Jain, educationist, stressed the importance of reading in Hindi and encouraged teachers to cultivate the habit amongst children. He said this would not only enhance the teachers knowledge but will motivate contemporary authors to write more! He mentioned that a teacher should read regularly and even build a personal library in due course. He spoke about the importance of ICT ( Information Communication & Technology) in recent times and asked the teachers to simultaneously educate students about the relevance of Kabir, Surdas and Mirabai in the modern world.

Mr Madhusudhan Anand in his speech talked about the different forms of language - the language of literature, market, films, media and dialogues. He said that there was no right or wrong way of speaking in Hindi and that a common language takes form on its own. Mrs Jayanti Rangnathan brought to light the deteriorating state of literature for children. She said that stories nowadays are based on subjects which are often about fifty years old and it is very important to connect with these stories in todays dynamic world.

Teachers should firstly make efforts to teach kids the importance and relevance of those stories. Secondly, they should write stories on more topical subjects like Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan.

Mr Saeed Ansari raised concerns over spoken Hindi. He strongly condemned the ignorance of wrong spelling and wrong pronunciation in Hindi. He said that if students these days are not able to speak and write good Hindi then its the responsibility of the teachers to improve it. There are many words in Hindi that are spoken and written incorrectly and weve accepted them due to sheer negligence. He insisted that we need to stop doing that. Mr Rajeev Kumar Shukla talked about different dialects in Hindi and how theyre equally important. He said that there should be no conflict among the languages. He also questioned schools for imposing fines on students for speaking in Hindi and discouraging them to speak in Hindi in their daily lives.

Mr Neelkanth Kumar said that in order to reach out to the children of todays generation, we should speak in a language that they are able to comprehend. He quoted from the Ramcharit Manas Khag Jaane Khag Hi Ki Bhasha which means a person only understands things in his/her own language. Mr Kumar stated his belief about the Hindi language struggling to find its rightful position. He expressed hope that one day will come when this struggle will make Hindi the language of acceptance.

Lastly, Chief Guest Mr. Akhilesh Mishra said that the whole world will respect Hindi only when the Hindi speaking people will feel proud of speaking the language. Hindi is deeply interconnected with other Indian languages. Language is the only means of communication that connects people with their culture, civilisation and emotions. Hence, it becomes all the more important to make sincere efforts that help our children master this language.

Being a part of this event was inspiring and insightful. All the speakers beautifully translated their experiences and knowledge into words. It was truly an enlightening experience.