WORLD HINDI CONFERENCE – INTERNATIONAL

News: Era when progress was equated with westernization behind us: Jaishankar at World Hindi Conference

 

What's in the news?

       External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the era when progress was equated with westernization is now behind us and many languages and traditions that were suppressed during the colonial era are once again finding a voice on the global stage.

 

Key takeaways:

       Though Hindi is not officially the national language of India, it is the strongest link language besides being one of the two official languages.

       According to the 2011 census, 528 million Indians speak Hindi as against Bengali (97.2 million), Marathi (83 million) Telugu (81 million) and Tamil (69 million) speakers.

 

World Hindi Conference:

       Period: 12th World Hindi Conference between February 15 and 17.

       Location: Suva, the capital of Fiji.

       Organized by the Government of Fiji and the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

       About 1,200 Hindi scholars and writers from all over the world are participating in this conference.

 

Go back to basics:

       The first World Hindi Conference was organized in 1975 in Nagpur.

       Till date, 11 World Hindi Conferences have been organized in different parts of the world.

       The last conference was held in Mauritius in 2018.

       Fiji is probably the only country outside India that has Hindi as an official language. Hindi is being taught from primary to secondary schools and offered as a language of study in university.