Hindi Day

Hindi Day (Hindi: हिन्दी दिवस, romanized: hindī divas) is celebrated in India to commemorate the date 14 September 1949 on which a compromise was reached—during the drafting of the Constitution of India—on the languages that were to have official status in the Republic of India.[1][2] The compromise, usually called the Munshi-Ayyangar formula, after drafting committee members K. M. Munshi and N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, was voted by the Constituent Assembly of India after three years of debate between two opposing camps. The Hindi protagonists wanted Modern Standard Hindi register of the Hindustani language to be the sole "national language" of India (replacing the Urdu standard adopted until the British Raj); the delegates from South India preferred English to have a place in the Constitution.[1][2] The Munshi-Ayyangar formula declared (i) Hindi to be the "official language" of India's federal government; (ii) English to be an associate official language for 15 years during which Hindi's formal lexicon would be developed; and (iii) the international form of the Hindu-Arabic numerals to be the official numerals.[1][2] The compromise resolution became articles 343–351 of India's constitution, which went into effect on 26 January 1950.[1][2] In 1965, when the 15 years were up, the Government of India announced that English would continue to be the "de facto formal language of India."[1][2]

Hindi Diwas
1988 Indian stamp.
Official nameHindi Diwas
ObservancesCommemoration of luminaries in the field of Hindi literature
Date14 September
Next time14 September 2024 (2024-09-14)
FrequencyAnnual
Related toWorld Hindi Day (10th January)

Events

Apart from local-level events in schools and other institutions, a few of the notable events include

  • The former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee had conferred awards in different categories for the excellence in different fields pertaining to Hindi at a function in Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.[3]
  • Rajbhasha Awards were conferred upon the Ministries, Departments, PSUs and Nationalised Banks.[4]

Ministry of Home Affairs in its order dated 25 March 2015 has changed name of two awards given annually on Hindi Divas. 'Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar' instituted in 1986 changed to 'Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar' and 'Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar' changed to "Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar".[5]

See also

References
  1. Lerner, Hanna (2016), "The Indian Founding: A Comparative Perspective", in Choudhry, Sujit; Khosla, Madhav; Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, Oxford University Press, pp. 63–64, ISBN 978-0-19-870489-8, Ultimately, it was the pragmatic consensus-seeking approach that triumphed. On 14 September 1949, after three years of debate, the assembly overwhelmingly approved a compromise resolution, known as the Munshi—Ayyangar formula, which later became Articles 343-51 of the Indian Constitution. Instead of declaring a 'national language', Hindi was labelled the 'official language of the Union', while English was to continue to be used 'for all official purposes'. It was decided that this arrangement would apply for a period of fifteen years, during which time Hindi was to be progressively introduced into official use. What would happen at the end of this interim period was left undetermined, with the Constitution providing for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to examine the issue in the future. In addition, the Constitution recognised fourteen other languages for official use (listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution). ... Fifteen years after the enactment of the Constitution, Hindi was still not widely used by the Union government. Following a series of violent riots in non-Hindi-speaking States in the 1960s, Parliament renounced the ideal of an Indian national language. In 1965, when the fifteen-year interim period prescribed by the Constitution elapsed, the government announced that English would remain the de facto formal language of India.
  2. Isaka, Riho (2021), Language, Identity, and Power in Modern India: Gujarat, c. 1850–1960, Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies, Routledge, pp. 126–197, ISBN 9781000468588, Partition may have 'killed' Hindustani, but it had a marked effect on the debates regarding the position of English and provincial languages in the Constitution. The Hindi protagonists became even more insistent on establishing Hindi as the sole national language and imposing it on the non-Hindi-speaking regions to enhance 'national unity'. In addition, these leaders even began to argue that the Devanagari form of numerals should be used instead of the international form. This was firmly opposed by members from South India. To solve the continuing dispute among the Assembly members, (K. M.) Munshi and N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, a Tamil member of the Assembly, drew up detailed language provisions. These, in the words of the latter, represented a 'compromise between opinions not easily reconcilable' (Constituent Assembly Debates 1X 1966: 1319). The provisions were proposed to the Congress on 2nd September 1949 and engendered a heated discussion. It was eventually decided that they would be proposed in the Assembly by Munshi, Ayyangar, and Bhimrao Ambedkar (the Chairman of the Drafting Committee) in their personal capacities, not as an official proposal on behalf of the Drafting Committee.
  3. "Hindi Has Become An Influencial [sic] Language Globally: Pranab Mukherjee". NDTV.com. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  4. "India observed Hindi Divas on 10 January". Jagran Josh. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  5. "Names of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi knocked off Hindi Diwas awards". The Economic Times. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
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