‘Hindi is world’s fourth most-spoken language’

PATNA: Educational institutions in the city organized literary and cultural programmes for students on the occasion of Hindi Diwas on Tuesday. They wanted to showcase the importance of the day and raise awareness about the use of the national language.

Speaking as the chief guest of a function organized by the Hindi department of Patna University (PU), noted littérateur, Bhupinder Kalsi, pointed out that Hindi should be made a medium of science education so that it gets wider acceptance.

“A lot of job opportunities have come up for Hindi linguists in recent years. If necessary steps are taken for promoting its use in higher education in science and technology, it will certainly develop as a global language,” Kalsi said, adding that Hindi was the fourth most-spoken language in the world after English, Spanish, and Mandarin.

PU’s geology department, on the other hand, organized a speech contest on ‘Contribution of Hindi Language in the Development of the Nation’ in which Mohd Asad Rahman, Shafquat Arfa, Avinash Upadhaya, and Anil Kumar received prizes.

The head of the geology department, Atul Aditya Pandey, in his presidential remarks, recalled that Hindi was adopted as one of the official languages of India on September 14, 1949.

Rabindra Kumar and Bhavuk Sharma also spoke on the occasion.

Addressing the Hindi Diwas celebrations at A N College, a retired Hindi teacher, Pratima Sharma, said, “Nobody can stop the growth of this national language as it has always promoted our culture and civilization.”

The students recited poems during the event which was presided over by college principal, Shashi Pratap Shahi. The head of the Hindi department, Krishna Singh, welcomed the guests.

Meanwhile, Ghanshyam Roy, the registrar of Nalanda Open University, laid emphasis on the need to use Hindi in all official transactions during a function organised on Tuesday.