World Hindi Day(Vishwa Hindi Divas) is annually celebrated on January 10 across the world to promote Hindi language worldwide and to present Hindi as an international language. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared January 10 as World Hindi Day in 2006.
Why January 10?
On this day, the 1st World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur, Maharashtra in 1975.
1st World Hindi Conference
The then Prime Minister (PM) Indira Gandhi inaugurated this conference.
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius was the chief guest of the conference.
Hindi is World’s 3rd Most Spoken Language:
i.The 22nd edition of the world language database Ethnologue released in February 2020 stated that Hindi is the 3rd most spoken language in the world with 615 million speakers after English( 1,132 million speakers), Chinese Mandarin( 1,117 million speakers).
- One of the Official Languages of India, Hindi is also the most spoken language in India.
ii.This edition lists 348 such languages that have gone out of use in recent history
iii.Ethnologue publishes an yearly database of living languages of the world since its establishment in 1951.Currently the database covers 7,111 living languages of the world.
About Hindi:
i.The word ‘Hindi’ has been originated from the persian word ‘Hind’, that means the land of the Indus river
ii.The language is derived from Sanskrit and is written in Devnagari script.
iii.In addition to India, this language is spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji, and Mauritius.
iv.It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India
Other Day Celebrated in Relation to Hindi
National Hindi Day: September 14
i.National Hindi Day or Hindi Divas is being celebrated on September 14 annually to promote Hindi across India.
ii.The day commemorates the adoption of Hindi in Devanagari script as one of the official languages of the Union.
Note– Article 343(1) of the Constitution Of India 1949 provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the Official Language of the Union
Recent Related News:
i.World Sanskrit Day 2020 – August 3
ii.Telugu Language Day- August 29
