The Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, chaired the 36th meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language in New Delhi today. Union Minister of State for Home Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra and Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Official Language Shri Bhartrihari Mahtab were also present at the meeting. On this occasion, the Union Home Minister said that today it is a matter of great pride for all of us that we have given approval to send the 10th Report of the Committee to the President. We will call on him to present the Report. Shri Amit Shah said that yesterday, 9th August was a historic day and this year 9th August has special significance because we are entering the 75th year of Independence. After a long period of slavery, our country became independent on 15 August 1947. He said that if these 75 years are evaluated, then it can be said that in these 75 years, everyone together has taken the roots of democracy to the villages and towns and has made democracy natural to us.
Shri Amit Shah said that he has read the history of many democratic countries. Having accepted the multiparty parliamentary system in India, we did not have any problem in taking it down to the bottom most level, it happened in a very natural way. There was no struggle. The Home Minister said there were different type of government systems in the country for centuries. There groups of vested interests and for long they also exploited society. But all changed in a single day without any bloodshed. Shri Shah said that after Independence there were many changes in power, even at that time there was no bloodshed. This shows that day by day the roots of our democracy are getting deeper and stronger and the banyan tree of democracy is growing bigger.
The Union Home Minister said that I do not know whether the country has been able to fulfill the dreams of Freedom Fighters or not. Maybe our pace may be a little slow but I can say with certainty that our path is right and we will definitely reach our goal. Shri Amit Shah said that our local languages and especially the official language Hindi has the biggest contribution in this. He said that the values of democracy are not new in our country, we had the first democracy in the world and we cannot preserve this culture without language. During the Freedom Movement, importance was given to our languages by our leaders and they showed awareness that English should not be dominant, that is why our languages are rich today. Local languages are also prosperous and day by day the official language Hindi has also been enriched. The Home Minister said that neither the original script nor language has survived in many countries, but he is proud that after Independence, we have preserved and the dialects that were there and saved as many languages as they were. At the same time, all the scripts are also progressing under the auspices of Devanagari. This did not cause any rift in the unity and integrity of the country, the local languages and the official language have worked to unite the country. For this reason, in his opinion, the Official Language Committee is the most important committee of Parliament.
Shri Amit Shah requesting members of the committee said that we should create an environment in which the development of the Official Language Hindi should take place easily as a friend of local languages. He said that it should not be done through imposition, if it was imposed, Hindi would have been rejected and would have died. If Hindi has not died, it is because we never tried to impose itself. For example, there cannot be competition between Gujarati and Hindi and Kannada and Hindi and other languages because both of them are like friends or sisters. If we move forward with this spirit, then only we will be able to take this work forward.
The Union Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the work of translating the entire curriculum of technical education and medicall education into the official language has been started and change is about to come in the country. If syllabus of technical education and medical education is translated into official language, then children studying in Hindi can complete the process of medical examination and become a doctor in and they can also do research in Hindi. He said that in the same way, the curriculum of all the disciplines of engineering in technical education would also be translated. Research in local languages will fulfill Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s dream. Shri Amit Shah said that many leaders in the freedom movement like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Nehru, Rajendra Babu and Vinoba Bhave were prominent in this mission. They kept the aspects of official language and Devanagari script in front of the people of every state. Official language is the link to connect this country, but at the same time the importance of local languages should not be diminished. We are moving in this direction at a fast pace and will be able to fulfill the resolve of the Freedom Fighters in the times to come. Shri Shah said that Narendra Modi has associated the official language with nation. Swabhasha, Swadeshi and Swaraj were the three foundations of our freedom movement. The sacraments of Swaraj can be imagined only from Swabhasha and Swadeshi. The idea of Swaraj transformed into Independence on 15 August 1947. Rajendra Babu had said that our official language Hindi is the mother of the collective consciousness of the nation, this concept is going to come true today.
Shri Amit Shah said that Hindi should be used even within justice and discussion with jurists should be done for it. The role of official language Hindi in the freedom movement should be the theme on 75 years of independence. It should be presented before the Parliament of the country that how much our local languages and official language have contributed to the country’s devopment. The Home Minister said that the local litterateurs wrote literature to give impetus to the movement. It should be the collective effort of all of us that the theme of the regional conferences and the national conferences should be based on this. By calling experts and litterateurs a message should be sent to the whole country that how big a contribution of local languages and official language has been in our freedom movement. Along with this, regional history should also be properly translated in the official language. Lal Bahadur Shastri had made special efforts in this direction but after that efforts are progressing at a slow pace. For example, if a child from Gujarat has to read about the Vijayanagara Empire, then there is no choice but to read it in English, there are examples of many other such states.
Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that after discussing with the MPs of various parties, a list of local language books of local history should be made and the Culture Department of the Government of India should translate the books and make them available in good libraries of the country. There should also be a system for their sale. He said that if the history of every part of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari becomes available in the official language for children studying history, then automatically the promotion of the official language will increase and this will enrich the knowledge of children.
The Union Home Minister said that there is similarity between our languages, there is also an invisible dialogue and it can be understood only after experiencing it. He said that many words of every language in the country are associated with some another language, the root of grammar is also the same.
Shri Amit Shah stressed that the acceptance of Hindi should be with consent and only then we will be able to make the official language the formula of national unity which was espoused by our freedom fighters. Shri Shah said that the government is ready to accept every good suggestion. The Union Home Minister said that when we are going to enter the 75th year of Independence, both the relevance and utility of our committee increases a lot. He called upon everyone to make Hindi more popular through collective efforts. He said that the Prime Minister has also promoted and spread our language by speaking in Hindi on international forums. He said that all speeches given by the Prime Minister in Parliament are also in Hindi and the committee should take inspiration from this.
Shri Amit Shah said that for the first time in the Tokyo Olympics, commentary was arranged in Hindi, and this is a matter of great encouragement for us.
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