External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will inaugurate the three-day event ’12th World Hindi Conference’ on February 15 at the Pacific island nation. The conference, scheduled to be held at Nadi from February 15-17, will be on the theme “Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence”.
The conference will be spread over one plenary session and ten parallel sessions on topics such as Hindi in Girmitiya countries; Hindi in Fiji and the Pacific; Information Technology and Hindi in the 21st century; Media and the global perception of Hindi; global reference of Indian knowledge traditions and Hindi; Linguistic coordination and Hindi translation.
Parallel sessions on different forms of Hindi cinema and the global scenario; global market and Hindi; Pravasi Hindi literature in the changing scenario, and Hindi teaching in India and abroad, challenges and solutions will also be held.
Hindi scholars from India and other countries will be awarded the “Vishwa Hindi Samman” for their exceptional contributions to the Hindi language during the conference.
A 270-person delegation of Hindi scholars and officials will attend the Fiji conference. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary (East) Saurabh Kumar said representatives from 50 countries are expected to participate.
Besides Jaishankar, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni will also address the event.
Fiji is hosting the conference for the first time and is home to a large Indian diaspora. Over 37 per cent of the Pacific island country’s population is of Indian descent, with many speaking Hindi, one of Fiji’s three official languages, alongside English and Fijian.
The conference will feature exhibitions on the evolution of Hindi. Indian Council for Cultural Relations has also proposed cultural programmes and Kavi Sammelan.
A comprehensive report summarising the discussions and recommendations from the conference will be issued.
Briefing the media, MEA’s Saurabh Kumar said that the government has been making sustained efforts to recognise Hindi as an official language of the UN and to popularise Hindi throughout the UN system.
In 2018, a Voluntary Financial Contribution Agreement was signed between the UN and the Indian government to promote Hindi within the UN system for a two-year term. This was the first Memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the UN with any country and was later extended by another five years in 2019. The agreement is currently in force till March 2025.
Under this agreement, the United Nations has created social media accounts in Hindi on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and a dedicated website for UN News in Hindi. The UN also broadcasts its programmes on UN Radio in Hindi, publishes a weekly Hindi news bulletin on SoundCloud, offers a UN blog in Hindi, and has developed a Hindi extension for the UN News mobile app for both Android and iOS systems.
World Hindi Conference was envisaged by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, based in Maharashtra’s Wardha in 1973. As a result, the first World Hindi Conference was organised 45 years back, between January 10-12, 1975, in Nagpur. Till date, 11 World Hindi Conferences have been held in different parts of the world.
Efforts to popularise Hindi through cultural exchange programs, language courses, and the promotion of Hindi movies, books, and songs have been instrumental in creating a strong interest in the language among the youth. They are eager to learn more about India and its rich cultural heritage. With the Indian diaspora around the world, Hindi has strong roots in almost all parts of the world. The language continues to thrive outside India, providing a powerful means of connecting people and communities across the globe.
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