HINDI LANGUAGE - हिन्दी भाषा

Lalita Kumari

Hindi, an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the primary link language of the Union government of India. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati; on the south by Marathi; on the southeast by Oriya; on the east by Bengali; and the north by Nepali. History of the Hindi language - हिन्दी भाषा के इतिहास Hindi and English are the main link languages of India. Hindi is the regional language of six states- Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. 437 million people in the world speak it. Hindi can be traced back to as early as the seventh or eighth century. The dialect that has been chosen as the official language in the Devanagari script is Khariboli. Other Hindi dialects are Brajbhasa, Bundeli, Awadhi, Marwari, Maithili, and Bhojpuri. It was in the 10th century that authentic Hindi poetry took its form, and since then, it has been constantly modified. Hindi हिन्दी Spoken in Indian states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and several others Total speakers 322 million worldwide Region Northern, Eastern, Western and Central India Writing system Devanagari Official language of Indian states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh The history of Hindi literature as a whole can be divided into four stages: Adikal (the Early Period), Bhaktikal (the Devotional Period), Ritikal (the Scholastic Period) and Adhunikkal (the Modern Period) Adikal - The Early Period: Adikal starts from the middle of the 10th century to the beginning of the 14th century. Bhakti Kal or The Devotional Period: Bhakti Kal or the Devotional Period stretched between the 14th and 17th centuries. During this age, Islamic customs were heaped upon the common people, and the Hindus were quite dejected at the effect on their culture. Ritikal or The Scholastic Period: The poets of Ritikal or the Scholastic period can be classified into two groups based on their subject: Ritibaddha (those wedded to rhetorics) and Ritimukta (free from rhetorical conventions). Modern Hindi Literature: Modern Hindi literature has been divided into four phases: the age of Bharatendu or the Renaissance (1868-1893), Dwivedi Yug (1893-1918), Chhayavada Yug (1918-1937) and the Contemporary Period (1937 onwards). Demographics - जनसांख्यिकी Area: Hindi text in Devnagari script (a prayer to a Hindu deity)Hindi is the predominant language in the states and union territories of Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. Linguistic scholars refer to this area as the Hindi belt. Outside these areas, Hindi is widely spoken in cities like Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, all of which have their own native languages but harbour large communities of people from various parts of India. Number of speakers: Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world due to India's large population. According to the 1991 census of India (which encompasses all the dialects of Hindi, including those that might be considered separate languages by some linguists-e.g., Bhojpuri), Hindi is the mother tongue of about 337 million Indians, or about 40% of India's population that year. According to SIL International's Ethnologue, about 180 million people in India regard standard (Khari Boli) Hindi as their mother tongue, and another 300 million use it as a second language. Outside India, Hindi speakers number around 8 million in Nepal, 890,000 in South Africa, 685,000 in Mauritius, 317,000 in the U.S., 233,000 in Yemen, 147,000 in Uganda, 30,000 in Germany, 20,000 in New Zealand and 5,000 in Singapore, while the UK and UAE also have notable populations of Hindi speakers. Hence, according to the SIL Ethnologue (1999 data), Hindi/Urdu is the fifth most spoken language in the world. According to Comrie (1998 data), Hindi-Urdu is the second most spoken language in the world, with 333 million native speakers. Conclusion Hindi can become a global language, but it has to defeat Mandarin Chinese and English, which require a lot of time and effort. India is a multicultural nation and a land of many languages. The promotion of the Hindi language at the international level in such a democratic country is unacceptable or considered unfair to all other languages. The southern states already have their views that the government and constitution do not do enough to promote their regional language as it is provided in the Constitution that if the member of a parliament speaks in his regional language, then it will be translated either into English or in Hindi not in any other language. Thus, promoting countries' cultures and languages is a good move, but it should not cost more than it deserves. We know that language plays a very important role in people's socio-cultural lives as it is the only medium by which we communicate, explain our thoughts, and identify ourselves. Therefore, if India wants Hindi to be a global language, it should start from within and begin with events that help it grow and rise worldwide. It can only be possible if Hindi centres, universities, NGOs and all Hindi speakers join their hands to increase the level of Hindi. Also, Hindi cinema and Bollywood can help promote Hindi throughout the globe.

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