New Delhi: Hindi Diwas is being celebrated across the country today to showcase the popularity and significance of Hindi as an official language of India.
On 14th September 1949 Hindi was adopted as the Official Language of the Union of India. Later in 1950, the Constitution of India declared Hindi in the Devanagari script as the Official language of India.
Apart from Hindi, English is also recognized as an Official Language of India. Different states of India identify their own official languages through legislation.
In 1950 it was declared that the use of English was to be put to an end, 15 years after the formation of the Constitution (by 26th January 1965). This decision was opposed by non-Hindi speaking areas of India, such as South India (since their languages are not remotely similar to Hindi).
In view of it, the Parliament brought into force the Official Languages Act 1963 which allowed the continuation of the use of English along with Hindi for official purposes after 1965. Some North Eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have English as their official language.
Hindi is one of the main languages of India and is spoken by around 40% of the Indian population. It is spoken by 250 million people as the original language and it is the fourth language of the world.
14th September is now recognized as Hindi Diwas and is celebrated every year.
To commemorate the day, different schools, colleges and organizations are organizing special competitions, such as poetry writing, story recitation, essay writing and Hindi vocabulary quizzes today.