New Delhi / Hindi Diwas 2019: Date, History & Significance of this Day in India

Every year, September 14 is celebrated as Hindi Diwas. On this day in 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language, written in Devanagari script as one of the official languages of the Republic of India. Spoken by around 40% of the Indian population, Hindi is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the country.

The word ‘Hindi’ came from a Persian word ‘Hind’, which means the land of the Indus River. Released in 1913, Raja Harishchandra is the first Hindi film. The movie was directed by Dadasaheb Phalke.

Today, Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world after English, Spanish and Mandarin.

Hindi Diwas 2019: History and Significance

Stalwarts like Beohar Rajendra Simha, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das lobbied hard in favour of Hindi to be made the official language of India.

On September 14, 1949, which marked the 50th birthday of Hindi scholar and stalwart Beohar Rajendra Simha, his hard work paid off and Hindi was adopted as the official language of the country.

Hindi Diwas 2019: Celebrations

Schools and colleges celebrate Hindi Diwas to showcase the importance of the language. Most of the educational institutes organise poem, essay and recitation competitions and encourage students to take part.

Every year on Hindi Diwas, President of India presents the Rajbhasha awards to people for their contribution towards the language, at a ceremony in Delhi.