January 10- World Hindi Day

January 10 is every year observed as the “World Hindi Day” to celebrate the history of the language and to promote its importance. As per the UN, Hindi is the 3rd most spoken language in the world after English and Mandarin. There are approximately 615 million speakers of the Hindi language.

Key Points

• The day is actually celebrated to mark the 1^st World Hindi Conference that was held in the year 1975 in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
• The 1^st Hindi Conference was inaugurated by the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi.
• The Conference was attended by 122 delegates from 30 nations and Mauritius Prime Minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was the Chief Guest of the Conference.
• Since then the World Hindi Conference has been organized at various countries across the world including India. Some of the countries that have organized the conference are the UK, the United States of America, Mauritius, Trinidad, and Tobago, etc.
• The 1^st World Hindi Day was celebrated in the year 2006 on January 10. The 1^st World Hindi Day was observed by the former Indian PM Manmohan Singh.

National Hindi Diwas or Hindi Day

Every year, India also celebrates September 14 as “Hindi Day” or National Hindi Diwas. The day is celebrated to mark the adoption of Hindi as the official language of the country on September 14, 1949. Hindi was adopted as an official language due to the efforts of Beohar Rajendra Simha and others including Kaka Kalelkar, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Seth Govind Das, and Maithili Sharan Gupt. Thus, on the 50th anniversary of Beohar Rajendra Simha i.e. September 14, 1949, Hindi was adopted as an official language. The decision came into effect from January 26, 1950.