World & National Hindi Day

World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 every year, marking the anniversary of first World Hindi Conference which was held in 1975. The first World Hindi Conference was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Since 1975, the World Hindi Conference has been organised in different countries like India, Mauritius, United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, United States.

World Hindi Day was first observed on January 10, 2006. Since then, it is celebrated on January 10 every year.

World Hindi Day vs National Hindi Diwas

World Hindi Day and National Hindi Diwas are completely different.

National Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14. On that day in 1949, the constituent assembly adopted Hindi, written in Devanagari script, as the official language of the Union.

While the focus of the World Hindi Day is to promote the language at the global stage, the National Hindi Diwas, which is held across the country at a national level, marks adaptation of Hindi, written in Devanagari script as the official language.

The first World Hindi Conference was held on January 10, 1975. The conference was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi in Nagpur.

The first conference had Mauritius prime minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam as the chief guest and was attended by 122 delegates from 30 countries.

Apart from India, countries like United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, have hosted the World Hindi Conference. Also, persons of Indian origin and non-residential Indians in many countries organise events to commemorate the day to spread the greatness of the language.

FACTS ABOUT THE HINDI LANGUAGE

1. The word Hindi originated from the Persian word Hind, which means the land of the Indus river.

2. Hindi is the first language of around 430 million people around the world.

3. Apart from India, the language is also spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji and Mauritius. Hindi and Nepalese share the same script - Devanagari.

4. The gender aspects of Hindi are very strict. All nouns in Hindi possess genders and the adjectives and verbs change according to gender.

5. Many English words have been derived from Hindi, such as chutney, loot, bungalow, guru, jungle, karma, yoga, thug, avatar and so on.

6. Hindi is a descendant of Sanskrit. Its words and grammar follow that of the ancient language.

7. In linguistic terms, Hindi belongs to the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of language.

8. Hindi has been influenced and enriched by Turkish, Arabic, Persian, English and Dravidian (ancient South India) languages.

9. The earliest form of Hindi was called 'Apabhramsa', which was an offspring of Sanskrit. In 400 AD, poet Kalidas wrote Vikramorvashiyam in Apabhramsa.

10. The first book believed to be published in Hindi was Prem Sagar. The book was published by Lalloo Lal and depicted tales of Krishna.

11. Hindi is one of the seven Indian languages that can be used to make web URLs.