Hindi Diwas, celebrated annually on September 14th, commemorates the adoption of Hindi in the Devanagari script as one of India’s two official languages by the Constituent Assembly of India in 1949, a decision that came into effect on January 26, 1950, with the enactment of the Indian Constitution.
On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, prominent public intellectual and Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav has launched a sharp critique against the annual celebration, labelling it a governmental “farce” (ढकोसला) that does little to strengthen the language.
In a detailed opinion piece, Yadav, a self-professed Hindi lover, argued that the ritualistic observance of Hindi Day and the subsequent fortnight is counterproductive. Instead of “performing aarti (worship) for Hindi once a year,” he urged Hindi speakers and well-wishers to use the language all 365 days.
The Core Argument: Expansion vs. Depth
Yadav’s central thesis is that Hindi faces a crisis not of expansion, but of depth. He cites 2011 Census data showing that 43% of Indians declared Hindi (or a related dialect like Bhojpuri or Marwari) as their mother tongue, a figure that rises to 57% when including those who speak it as a second or third language. He predicts this number will cross 60% in the next census.
This spread, he contends, is not due to government policy but is the work of popular culture—Bollywood cinema, music, TV serials, cricket commentary, and now, social media. Hindi has also emerged as a bridge language among non-Hindi speaking youth in nationally recruiting colleges and in political discourse.
The “Crisis of Depth”
Despite this unprecedented reach, Yadav points to a alarming hollowness. He states that while more people are adopting Hindi, it is only as a language of casual conversation. There is a widespread “eagerness to break free from the stamp of Hindi-medium education.”
He outlines several symptoms of this crisis:
- Educational Deficit:Â Graduates from the Hindi belt often cannot spell Hindi correctly. Doctors, engineers, and managers cannot write a single page in the language.
- Functional, Not Intellectual:Â Hindi is reserved for childhood memories and jokes with friends, but is not the language for serious engagement with national or global issues.
- Lack of Academic Rigor:Â While degrees in subjects like Economics or Sociology are offered in Hindi, original research in these fields is scarce. The idea of teaching advanced science and technology in Hindi, like Japan or Korea do in their languages, is unimaginable.
- Inferiority Complex:Â This numerical dominance, Yadav argues, coexists with a deep-seated sense of inferiority, leading to a “hollow aggression.” He claims Hindi tries to compensate for its servitude to English by acting as a “step-mother to its own dialects” and a “mother-in-law to other Indian languages,” calling them “impure.”
A Call for a New Approach
Yadav calls for an end to the “fake claim of being a National Language and the official bullying of a Rajbhasha.” He proposes a different path forward:
- Stop government orders forcing adoption and instead develop a simpler, more accessible form of Hindi for official work.
- Stop preaching to children to read Hindi; instead, write compelling stories that will hook them to the language.
- Enrich Hindi to make it capable of providing high-paying jobs and fostering original knowledge.
- Build bridges with other Indian languages, respecting them as elder sisters, rather than asserting dominance over them.
Yadav’s concluding plea for this Hindi Diwas is a pledge to not participate in this “government farce,” to neither patronize Hindi nor boast about it, but to work substantively to make it so rich that it can earn its place on its own merit.
About Hindi Diwas
Hindi Diwas, celebrated annually on September 14th, commemorates the adoption of Hindi in the Devanagari script as one of India’s two official languages by the Constituent Assembly of India in 1949, a decision that came into effect on January 26, 1950, with the enactment of the Indian Constitution. This day is observed to promote and preserve Hindi’s cultural significance and linguistic heritage amid the country’s diverse linguistic landscape, highlighting its role as a unifying language for millions of speakers while also acknowledging the importance of India’s other languages.