World Hindi Day or Vishwa Hindi Diwas is celebrated on January 10, every year to promote awareness about the language across the world. It is also the day when Hindi, India’s national language, was spoken for the first time in the United Nations General Assembly. It was on this day in 1975 that the first World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur. Since then, such conferences are organised in different parts of the world every year.
The theme this year is “Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence”. This year, the 12th World Hindi Conference will be organised in Fiji by the Foreign Ministry in collaboration with the Fiji government from February 15 to 17.
The Union of India adopted Hindi as its official language in 1950. According to Article 343, the Constitution of India states that the official language of India shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The first World Hindi Conference was envisioned by Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha in 1973. It was organized in Nagpur on January 10, 1975. Its aim was to promote the language on a global level. The conference saw the participation of 30 countries with 122 representatives.
Vishwa Hindi Diwas was first celebrated in 2006 under the instructions of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The date of January 10 was chosen as Hindi was spoken for the first time in the United Nations General Assembly on January 10, 1949 . In 1975, the World Hindi Conference was formed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for bringing together Hindi scholars, writers and laureates who have contributed to the development of the language and appreciate their contributions.
