Every year on January 10, World Hindi Day or the Vishwa Hindi Diwas with an aim to promote the use of the Hindi language worldwide. The word Hindi originated from the Persian word Hind, meaning the land of the Indus river.
Apart from India, the language is also spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji, and Mauritius. Therefore, to promote the Hindi language all around the world, International Hindi Day or World Hindi Day is celebrated every year.
The day is celebrated at the Indian Embassies and government offices that organize lectures on different topics.
World Hindi Day History:
January 10 marks the first World Hindi Conference that took place in 1975, in Nagpur, Maharashtra which was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The chief guest of the first conference was Mauritius prime minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. It was attended by 122 delegates from 30 countries.
In 2006, then PM Manmohan Singh declared January 10 as World Hindi Day. Another objective of the occasion is to present Hindi as an international language.
"Use of Hindi in national practice is necessary for the progress of the country" -Mahatma Gandhi had said.
How World Hindi Day is observed?
On this day most of the schools and colleges across the country encourage students to participate in various literary and cultural programmes like poems competitions, essays, and letters writing completion in the language.
Difference between World Hindi Day and National Hindi Divas:
Hindi is one of the widely spoken languages of the world after English and Mandarin. As a linguistic variety, after English, Mandarin and Spainish, Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world. Hindi is also a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit.
There are some people who confuse World Hindi Day with the National Hindi Divas which is celebrated annually on September 14.
Hindi Diwas is observed annually on September 14th marking the declaration of language Hindi as official language. Meanwhile, World Hindi conference or Vishva Hindi Sammelan is celebrated on January 10th is a word conference on Hindi language.
Hindi Diwas is observed every year. World Hindi Conference is observed once in every three years.
