CHAPTER VIII LANGUAGES
The work on the promotion and development of Hindi and other Indian Languages and Sanskrit as well as English and other foreign languages, was continued during 1977-78, on the lines followed in the previous year. The activities and programmes undertaken in the field of languages can be broadly grouped as:
(i) Spread and development of Hindi;
(ii) Promotion of Indian Languages;
(iii)Promotion of English and other foreign languages; and
(iv) Promotion of Sanskrit and other classical languages such as Arabic and Persian.
Apart from the schemes directly executed by the Ministry, the following offices/organisations set up by the Ministry pursued the implementation of the programmes in the field of languages:-
(i) Central Hindi Directorate
(ii) Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology.
(iii) Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra
(iv) Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore
(v) Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad
(vi) Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi
(vii) Bureau for Promotion of Urdu.
A. SPREAD AND DEVELOPMENT OF HINDI The Ministry continued to provide facilities for the teaching of Hindi is non-Hindi speaking States by : (i) providing financial assistance to the non-Hindi speaking States for appointing Hindi teachers in their schools; (ii) providing assistance for the
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training of their Hindi teachers; (iii) awarding scholarships to students belonging to non-Hindi speaking States for the study of Hindi beyond the stage of matriculation; (iv) assisting voluntary Hindi organisations financially to enable them to hold Hindi teaching classes and maintain libraries and reading rooms; (iv) continuing and expanding the programme of Hindi correspondence courses conducted by the Central Hindi Directorate; (vi) providing books in Hindi to various organisations; and (vii) organising research on the methodology of teaching Hindi to different mother-tongue groups and allied matters through the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra.
Appointment of Hindi Teachers in the Non-Hindi speaking States During the year grants were given to non-Hindi speaking States/Union Territories towards the expenditure on 2200 teachers appointed during 1974-75, 1300 teachers appointed during 1975-76 and 1350 teachers appointed during 1976-77 and 1500 teachers appointed during 1977-78. The scheme will continue in 1978-79 and it is proposed to sanction 1500 fresh Hindi Teachers during 1978-79.
Establishment of Hindi Teachers Training Colleges/Wings in the non-
Hindi speaking States This scheme is being continued from the Fourth Five Year Plan with some modifications. 6 Hindi Teachers Training Col- leges/Wings/Centres have been opened under this scheme during Fifth Five Year Plan. The total number of such colleges/ wings/centres now functioning is 19.
Prizes to Hindi Writers of non-Hindi speaking areas To encourage writers of non-Hindi speaking areas whose mother tongue is not Hindi, 5 prizes each carrying a cash prize of Rs. 1500/- were announced during the year.
Award of Scholarships for the Study of Hindi 2,450 scholarships were awarded during the year for the study of Hindi at the Post-Matric stage for students belonging to the non-Hindi Stages. It is proposed to increase the number of scholarships to 2,500 per year shortly.
Financial Assistance to Voluntary Hindi Organisations During the year 1977-78, about 120 voluntary Hindi organisations are expected to receive financial assistance to the extent
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of Rs. 20.00 lakhs for the spread and development of Hindi. These organisations have been running free Hindi classes, Hindi type-writing classes and holding conferences and seminars apart from bringing out publications and running Hindi libraries.
Hindi medium Sections in the non-Hindi speaking States Designed to help start Hindi medium sections in existing colleges in non-Hindi speaking States by providing grants to meet deficits, the scheme was launched and announced to the different non-Hindi speaking State Governments.
Development of Hindi Library of Nagari Pracharni Sabha, Varanasi A grant of Rs. 3.00 lakhs is proposed to be released to the Nagari Pracharni Sabha, Varanasi during 1977-78 for construction of an annexe to the existing building of the Library of the Sabha.
Encouragement and guidance to non-Hindi Speaking students and
Writers of Hindi Five workshops have been planned to encourage Hindi Writers of non-Hindi speaking areas engaged in creative writing through intensive orientation and by acquainting them with the latest trends in literature. This programme is being implemented by the CHD, a subordinate office of this Ministry and affords opportunities to non- Hindi speaking Hindi writers to come into contact with their counterparts in other parts of the country.
With a view to fostering the values of national integration, as usual, it is proposed to organise 5 lecture tours of Hindi Scholars from Hindi speaking States to non-Hindi speaking States and vice- versa. All these 5 lecture tours will be arranged from non-Hindi speaking States to Hindi-speaking States and the same number from Hindi-speaking States to non-Hindi speaking States.
Not only the Hindi scholars but even those students of Hindi who are prosecuting their studies in Hindi in the non-Hindi speaking areas are also provided opportunities to visit Hindi speaking areas to improve conversation in Hindi as well as acquiring the proper accent and pronunciation of Hindi words.
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Travel grants @ Rs. 300/- are given to students of non-Hindi speaking States for visiting Hindi-speaking States. The students are taken in two groups. The first group has already completed its study tour from 26th October, 1977 to 6th November, 1977. This group consisted of 39 boys and girls.
Publication of Popular Books in Hindi This scheme was started in the year 1961 and 290 titles of popular interest have so far been brought out under this scheme. The scheme aims at dissemination of scientific knowledge and assistance and fostering values of national integration, secularism and humanism. This scheme is implemented in collaboration with the private publishers. Under this scheme, normally 3000 copies of the title are published of which 1000 copies are purchased by the Central Hindi Directorate at a discount of 25%.
Hindi through Correspondence Courses The Central Hindi Directorate started in 1968, a scheme for the teaching of Hindi to non-Hindi speaking people and foreigners. This scheme is intended to take Hindi to the door steps of those non-Hindi speaking people and foreigners who for want of either of time or for other facilities cannot utilise the facilities available for the learning of Hindi either in the regular schools or the Hindi teaching classes started by the Ministry of Home Affairs (under Hindi teaching scheme). This teaching of Hindi was originally started through the medium of English and from the year 1976 is available through the medium of Tamil Correspondence. Courses through the medium of Malayalam will be started from 1978-79.
Under this scheme the following courses are being conducted :-
(a) General Courses.-These courses are the Hindi Pra- vesh (a two-year elementary course) and Hindi Parichya (a two-year advance course). The former course is equivalent to the Hindi course prescribed, for the primary schools in the non-Hindi speaking States and the latter is equivalent to the Hindi standard prescribed for the High Schools. For these courses, emphasis is laid not on the teaching of Hindi literature but on the teaching of Hindi language.
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There are 8775 students on roll at the moment in both these courses.
(b) Teaching of Hindi through the medium of Regional languages
As already stated above, Central Hindi Directorate started the teaching of Hindi through correspondence through the medium of Tamil with effect from 1st July, 1976. The number of students on roll at present in this section of the correspondence courses is 5784 in the first year and 1423 in the second year.
Besides the above general courses the CHD is also conducting special courses for the benefits of those Central Government employees who cannot avail themselves due to one reason or the other the facilities available under the Hindi teaching scheme of the Ministry of Home Affairs. These courses are the Pravesh, Praveen and the Pragya. All the three courses are of one year duration each and the session starts for each of the course on the 1st of January of a Calendar year. The following categories of employees are eligible for enrolment to these courses :-
1. Officers of Group `A' and `B' (Central Government).
2. Operational staff of the Central Government.
3. Employees who are not covered under the Hindi teaching scheme of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
4. Principals and Teachers of the Kendriya Vidyalayas.
5. Employees of the semi-Government Departments and public bodies.
There are 3918 students on roll under these courses at present.
Personal Contact Programmes As a part of the correspondence course the Directorate undertakes programme in different parts of the country to help the Hindi learners to improve their spoken Hindi and accent and pronunciation. This year these programmes have been organised at Madurai, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Durgapur and Tiruchirapalli.
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UNESCO Doot The UNESCO Doot which is the Hindi version of UNESCO Courier, is now being published by the Central Hindi Directorate. The Directorate brought out 22 volumes of this publication in Hindi, during the period January 1976 to December 1977. A Conference of the Editors of various languages in which the Unesco Courier is published was held in Paris from 26th September to 30th September, 1977 and was attended by the Chairman, Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology and Central Hindi Directorate.
Varshiki The 1975 Edition of Hindi Varshiki which is a Year Book being brought out by the Central Hindi Directorate to project the progress in various aspects of literature of different Indian Languages has been prepared in 4 volumes which are under print. The volume relating to Assamese, Oriya and Bangla has already been published and is available from the Central Hindi Directorate. The scheme for the publication of Hindi Varshiki 1976 has also been finalised and material for the 4 volumes is being compiled.
Book Exhibition The exhibitions of Hindi Books are held with a view to apprising people of the all-round development of Hindi and for the popularisation of the scientific and technical literature. These exhibitions are arranged on the occasions of Conferences/Seminars, national or international book fairs etc. The Directorate organised 13 Book Exhibitions from January 1, 1977 to 8th December, 1977.
Evolution of Scientific and Technical Terminology Terminology : The Bureau of Fundamental Sciences of the CHD is engaged in the completion of a manuscript running into 2500 pages of Hindi-English scientific terminology. This work is expected to be completed during 1977-78.
Definitional Dictionaries The Directorate has since published definitional dictionaries of Geography and Botany.
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Digests/ Monographs The digests of Botany and Anthropology have so far been published.
Propagation of Hindi Abroad The Scheme to promote Hindi abroad mainly in Caribbean countries of South-East and West Asia and in the advanced countries like the UK, the USA, the USSR, France, West Germany and Japan was formulated and approved in the Fourth Plan, The Scheme continued in the Fifth Five Year Plan and also proposed to be continued during the new medium term Plan.
Under the Scheme for Propagation of Hindi Abroad, scholarships are awarded to foreign nationals to study Hindi at the New Delhi branch of the Central Institute of Hindi During the year scholarships were granted to 16 foreign scholars from Fiji, Republic of Korea, the UK, the USA, France and West Germany, The Ministry continues to maintain three Hindi lecturers working in the Caribbean countries i.e. Trinidad, Surinam and Guyana and two part-time Hindi teachers in Sri Lanka.
To provide reading material to those who have already learnt Hindi, Hindi books are supplied to the Indian Missions abroad for setting up Hindi libraries. A Hindi library is functioning in Kathmandu under a full-time librarian working under the control of the Indian Embassy in Nepal. The proposal for appointment of a librarian in a few other Indian Missions is under consideration. On the request received from Indian High Commissioner in Mauritania for the supply of additional Hindi books, a sum of Rs. 75,000/- has been sanctioned to the Central Hindi Directorate for this purpose.
Apart from books, Hindi typewriters and other equipment are also supplied under the Scheme, for promotion of Hindi abroad. A working group of two experts from the GDR visited India during the year 1977 for a Period of three months in connection with the compilation of Hindi-German and German-Hindi dictionaries under the Indo-GDR Cultural Exchange Programme. A project for the preparation of Hindi-Czech and Czech-Hindi dictionaries in cooperation with Czechoslovak Government was finalised under the Indo-Czech Cultural Exchange Programme.
In order to give a more effective orientation to the scheme of Propagation of Hindi Abroad, keeping in view the resources
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at our disposal and the needs of the various countries, it is proposed to launch a vigorous programme for the popularisation and teaching of Hindi in foreign countries. To achieve this it is proposed to organise Workshops in India and abroad in which writers of Hindi from various countries, especially those countries having sizable population of Indian origin, could be invited. It is also proposed to send eminent creative writers/teachers and thinkers to foreign countries for teaching Hindi or delivering a set of lectures in Hindi. It is also proposed to increase the provision of gifting of Hindi books to the libraries in the foreign countries.
Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal (Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra,
Delhi, Hyderabad and Shillong) The Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, an autonomous organisation, established by the Ministry of Education in 1961, runs the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan in order to fulfil the directive contained in Article 351 of the Constitution. The Sansthan has since grown into a Centre of Teaching and Training of Hindi as second/foreign language and as an advanced centre for Language teaching methods, applied linguistic and basic research. The main campus of the Sansthan is at Agra and branch campuses are functioning at Delhi, Hyderabad and Shillong.
During the period under report, the Sansthan continued to devote its attention mainly to train large number of Hindi teachers of north- eastern states, namely, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh where the paucity of Hindi teachers is felt so far. Sansthan has also been preparing Hindi textbooks and other teaching materials for these states. The Sansthan continued this year too, to distribute free gift of interesting Hindi books of educative value with attractive pictures amongst the students of the aforesaid states.
Apart from this the Sansthan has also made preliminary pre- parations to start a B.Ed. level correspondence course in Hindi teaching for untrained in-service Hindi teachers of Non-Hindi speaking states. This course is likely to be started from March, 1978. A brief account of the main activities undertaken by the Sansthan during the year is given below
I. Teaching and Training Programme : During the report period (up to 31st December, 1977), 585 persons Indian and foreigners-joined different courses of the Institute run at its four centres.
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II. Research and Teaching Material Production : In the year under review field-research on Banking Hindi was completed and a full course of Banking Hindi for the bank manager/officers was proposed. The material published in the form of an integrated book, is being experimented on the trainees. Similar research work on various aspects of Hindi is continuing.
III. Production of Textbooks etc. : One of the major functions of the Sansthan is to produce textbooks for the students of non-Hindi speaking region;, particularly those of Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. In the year under review, various types of pronunciation lessons, grammar deskbooks, script-books composition books and types were brought out. The Sansthan has started to work on a scheme of producing 20 Monographs on various topics of Applied Linguistics, which will be useful for trainees and as well as for teacher-educators of Hindi training colleges.
IV. Publication : During the year under report 10 books were either published or sent to press for printing During the year the 27th volume of research journal `Gaveshna' and the 24-25th Volume of `Sansthan Bulletin' were brought out.