National Hindi Divas is an annual literary-day celebrated on 14 September in Hindi speaking regions of India and other countries with Hindi speaking population.
Significance: It seeks to propagate Hindi language and its cultural heritage and values. It also seeks to promote the Matra Bhasha i.e. mother tongue of India and show its importance as a language in the country and the world at large.
On the occasion of 2015 Hindi Divas, President Pranab Mukherjee presented Rajbhasa awards in various categories at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
These Rajbhasa awards are instituted by the Rajbhasha Vibhag of Union Ministry of Home Affairs and recognize Ministries, Departments and Nationalized Banks and others for their excellent contribution in the field of Hindi.
About National Hindi Divas
- National Hindi Divas is observed to mark adaptation of Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of India by the Constituent Assembly of India on 14 September 1949.
- The decision of using Hindi as the official language was ratified by the Constitution of India which came into effect on 26 January 1950.
- Under the Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, Hindi written in Devanagri script was adopted as the official language. But presently, there are 2 official languages: Hindi and English.
Facts About The Hindi language
- Has its roots with Sanskrit language, going back to nearly 5,000 BC
- Hindi got its name from the Persian word Hind, meaning “Land of the Indus River”,
- The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as the Official Language of the Union on 14 September 1949. Hence it is celebrated as Hindi Day.
- It became the official language of India in 1965.
- Hindi is also spoken in some countries outside India, such as in Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Pakistan, Nepal etc.
- one of the most spoken languages worldwide
- Hindi is written from left to right.
- Hindi language includes 11 vowels and 33 consonants
- Hindi language doesn't have any articles (like we have 'the' and 'a' in English).
- Prem Sagar (meaning Ocean of Love) by Lallu Lal, published in 1805, is considered to be the first book to be published in Khari Boli, the dialect of Hindi which is the basis for the standard Hindi used today.
- Hindi is one of the seven languages of India that can be used to make web addresses (URLs).