The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of India in 1949. Ever since Hindi Divas is celebrated on 14 September. The day also marks the birth anniversary of Beohar Rajendra Simha, who immensely contributed in highlighting the importance of Hindi.
Today marks the 68th anniversary of Hindi being adopted as one of the official languages of India. On this occasion, here are some amazing facts about the Hindi language.
- Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world.
- Hindi is the first language of nearly 430 million people.
- Apart from India, Hindi is also spoken in Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Nepal and Suriname.
- English words like chutney, loot, bungalow, guru, jungle, karma, thug and a lot more have been borrowed from Hindi.
- Bihar was the first state to adopt Hindi as its official state language in the year 1881.
- Former US President George Bush allocated a budget of $114 million to teach Hindi.
- Published in 1805, Prem Sagar by Lallu Lal is considered to be the first book published in Hindi.
- Hindi has taken many words from Persian and Arabic languages.
Happy Hindi Divas, people!
