World Hindi Day 2019: Its Significance and How it is Different from Hindi Diwas

The World Hindi Day is observed annually on 10 January. On this occasion, Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) hosts and conducts various special programs to promote the through its missions abroad. The day is celebrated by organizing events by non-residential Indians and Persons of Indian Origin. The ultimate aim of celebration is to spread the greatness of Hindi language.

The celebration of World Hindi Day was commenced on 10 January 2006 by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Since then, World Hindi Day is celebrated on 10th January every year. In addition to World Hindi Diwas, every year, on September 14, Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year.

The first World Hindi Conference was organized in Nagpur on January 10, 1975 with the aim of promoting the language of the nation worldwide. The conference saw the participation of 122 representatives from 30 countries.

Apart from World Hindi Day, 'Hindi Day' is celebrated on 14th September every year. From September 14, 1949 the Hindi language was celebrated on September 14, when the Constituent Assembly gave Hindi the status of official language.

It should be noted that World Hindi Day is the promotion of the language at the global stage. Whereas, National Hindi Divas is being observed across the country at national level. The National Hindi Divas is observed to mark adaptation of Hindi written in Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union by the Constituent Assembly on 14 September 1949.

Hindi is the fourth most spoken language of the world. It is mother tongue of around 258 million people across the world. The provision of Hindi as official Language of the Union has been mentioned in Article 120, Article 210 and Article 343, 344 and from 348 to 351.

The first World Hindi Day in Norway was celebrated by the Indian Embassy. After this, the second and third World Hindi Day was celebrated with great fanfare under the chairmanship of writer Suresh Chandra Shukla under the auspices of the Indian Norwegian Information and Cultural Forum.

There is an island named Fiji in Melanesia of the South Pacific Ocean. In Fiji Hindi has been given the official language status. It is also called Physian Hindi or Physian Hindustani. This period is a composite form of Bhojpuri and other dialects.