Father Kamil Bulke, who, despite being a foreigner, had an unrelenting love for the Hindi language.

Hindi Diwas 2022: Belgium, a country in North-Western Europe, from where a person came to India at the age of 26 to propagate Christianity and then dyed India's language and culture in such a way that he became a devotee of Tulsi and Valmiki. We are talking about Father Kamil Bulke, the creator of the most famous English-Hindi dictionary. The same Kamil Bulke, despite being a missionary, was a scholar of Ramkatha.

Now you must be thinking that how did a foreigner take so much interest in Indian language and culture that today he remembers Hindi language as soon as it is mentioned. Before understanding this, know that Father Kamil Bulke loved his mother tongue very much. He was from northern Belgium where Flemish was spoken. It is a variant of the Dutch language. The southern region was dominated by French, which was the language of the Belgian rulers and the elite. Because of this, there was often a conflict situation between the local language and the French.

When Kamil Bulke was in college, he took part in the movement against the French language and emerged as a famous student leader. This was the reason why Kamil Bulke had a deep love for his language and culture.

It was the attachment to the language that when Kamil Bulke came here, he first learned the language here and acquired such scholarship in Hindi that he was recognized as a great linguist. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 by the Government of India in the field of literature and education. They always used to say that Sanskrit is the queen, Hindi is the daughter-in-law and English is the maid.

Wrote my PhD thesis in Hindi in Allahabad University

Kamil Bulke, who spoke Flemish in Belgium, learned about Awadhi, Braj, Pali, Prakrit and Apabhramsa while living in India and completed his PhD from Allahabad University in the year 1950. He wrote his research in Hindi instead of English.

His dictionaries became essential documents for the people

Father Kamil Bulke started working after receiving his education. He had made the then Bihar and now Jharkhand as his workplace. After teaching mathematics in Gumla in his early days, he became a professor of Hindi and Sanskrit at Sant Xavier's College, Ranchi. However, later he devoted himself completely to Hindi literature and language. The result of this is many invaluable texts composed by him.

The most famous English-Hindi dictionary writer is Father Kamil Bulke. His dictionary is considered a living document of 30 years of Hindi sadhana. Apart from this, he wrote Ram Katha: Genesis and Development in 1949, Hindi-English miniseries in 1955, Muktidata in 1972, Naya Vidhana in 1977 and Neelpakshi in 1978.

Tulsidas had influenced

Father Kamil Bulke was most influenced by Tulsidas. He believed that Tulsi is the greatest poet from Hindi. To understand the compositions of Tulsidas, he learned till Awadhi and Braj. He wrote Ramkatha and works like Tulsidas and Manas-Kaumudi on the contribution of Tulsidas only. Father Kamil Bulke died on 17 August 1982 in AIIMS, Delhi due to gangrene.