The Day commemorates the listing of Hindi as the official language of India along with English, which happened on September 14, 1949. It also marks the efforts put in by successive Indian governments over the years to promote the language as the symbol of Indian unity.

“In New Zealand though, the celebrations have more to do with preserving the Indian culture, history, traditions and language, by passing on the knowledge of Hindi to the younger generation who otherwise are just used to speaking English. That’s why we make sure that we celebrate Hindi Diwas every year,” said Kala Nand, a primary school teacher, who runs regular Hindi classes in Christchurch, under the Canterbury Hindi Language Trust, which was founded in 2007. This year the celebrations were a bit delayed due to the ongoing measles outbreak, but still the children showed huge interest in keep learning their mother tongue, she added.

-TIN Bureau