Hindi is closely associated with Indias’ freedom struggle movement. The invasion of India by Britishers was a setback to the widespread use of Hindi amongst Indians as our colonizers pushed and promoted English. Soon, it also became a class divider between the privileged Indians and the masses.
In the post-independence period, as a way of reclaiming the narrative and asserting the refound independence, on the 14th of September 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India declared Hindi as an official language of India.
To commemorate the day, educational institutes host participatory events and competitions on Hindi essay, play and speech writing. The 14th of September is also the day our President presents the Rajbhasha awards to people for their contribution towards the language.
Hindi hails from the north and central parts of India. Used by 40% of Indians, it is also recorded to be the 4th most spoken language in the world. Being the only official language of India except English, it is primarily used for communication between the centre and the state. Although, the states have the option to present in any of the 22 state languages in the parliament.
The history of Hindi is not untainted within India, it has had a long battle with other regional languages which still exists. Even in current times, the #StopHindiImperialism and #StopHindiImposition twitter trends started prior to today and are still lively.
Though, India never officially named Hindi as the national language,Tamil Nadu has been on the forefront as the critic to Hindi being considered as the national language since the 1960s. In February 1965, two of Tamil Nadus’ union Ministers had resigned to stand in solidarity with the protestors marching for regional languages to be given importance as well. Even today, there is constant criticism and backlash for promoting Hindi as the only language that represents India exists and getting more powerful than earlier.
