No competition, Hindi is a friend of all local languages: Amit Shah

New Delhi: There can never be a competition between Hindi and other Indian languages because the official language, Hindi, is their friend, and they complement each other, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.

Addressing the fourth Akhil Bhartiya Rajbhasha Sammelan on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Shah also said the promotion of the official language Hindi cannot happen until all other Indian languages are strengthened and the official language does not establish a dialogue with all of them.

"There can never be a competition between Hindi and local languages because Hindi is the friend of all local languages. Hindi and all local languages complement each other. Therefore, the relationship between Hindi and all local languages will be strengthened," he said.

The home minister said the Hindi Diwas is an occasion to take a pledge to make Hindi a communication language, a common language, a technical language and now an international language.

"We are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee to mark the completion of 75 years of Hindi as the official language. By accepting Hindi as the official language and connecting all the local languages of the country through Hindi, we are moving towards preserving and promoting our culture, languages, literature, art and grammar," he said.

Shah said Hindi is more of a geo-cultural language rather than a geo-political language. He said all communications through files of his two ministries -- Home and Cooperation -- are done through Hindi. "It took three years to reach this stage," he said.

Earlier, extending greetings on the occasion of the Hindi Diwas, Shah also said that it was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly that all citizens of the country should communicate with each other in an Indian language, be it Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Gujarati.

"By strengthening Hindi, all these languages will also become flexible and prosperous and with the practice of integration, all languages will also take forward our culture, history, literature, grammar and the 'sanskar'," he said in a video message.

The home minister said the Hindi Diwas this year is very important for everyone because, on September 14, 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India accepted Hindi as the official language of the Union.

"Hindi has seen many ups and downs in 75 years, but at this juncture, I can definitely say that Hindi has no competition with any local language. Hindi is a friend (sakhi) of all Indian languages, and they complement each other. Whether it is Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil or Bangla, every language strengthens Hindi, and Hindi strengthens every language," he said.

Shah said if the Hindi movement is looked at carefully whether it is Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or Acharya J B Kriplani, all of them hailed from the non-Hindi speaking areas.

He said the committee formed under the leadership of N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar and K M Munshi had presented a report to the Constituent Assembly to recognise Hindi as the official language and give strength to Hindi and all other languages. "Both these leaders also hailed from non-Hindi speaking areas," he said.

The home minister said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, a lot of work has been done to strengthen Hindi and local languages in the last 10 years.

“Modi ji has proudly addressed many international forums in Hindi and has put forward the importance of Hindi not only in the country but across the world. Along with this, the Prime Minister has also increased the sense of pride towards the country's languages. In these 10 years, we have made a lot of efforts to strengthen several Indian languages," he said.

Shah said Prime Minister Modi has given a new life to Hindi and all Indian languages by giving an important place to imparting primary education in mother tongue in the new education policy. Shah said the government has developed a tool 'Kanthasth' in these 10 years.

"We have submitted four reports of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in the last 10 years and work has been done to establish Hindi prominently in government work," he said.

Shah said the Department of Official Language is also bringing a portal for translation from Hindi to all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule through which any letter or speech could be translated into all languages in a very short time using Artificial Intelligence.

The home minister said this will greatly strengthen Hindi and local languages. "Our languages are among the richest languages of the world. Hindi connects us and all our languages," he said.

Shah appealed to all the countrymen to take a pledge on the Hindi Diwas to strengthen Hindi and local languages and support this work of the department of official language.