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 1978-79, 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 in non-Hindi speaking States by : (i) providing financial
138
139
assistance to the non-Hindi speaking States for appointing Hindi teachers in their schools ; (ii) providing assistance for the 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 ; (v) 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 Non-Hindi Speaking States During the year, grants were given to Non-Hindi Speaking States/Union Territories towards expenditure on 1250 Hindi Teachers appointed in 1978-79 and on 6350 teachers appointed during 1974-75 to 1977-78.
Establishment of Hindi Teacher Training Colleges in Non-Hindi
Speaking States A total of 19 Hindi Teacher Training Colleges have been opened in Non-Hindi speaking States during the IV & V Five Year Plans. The Scheme will continue in the VI Five Year Plan also.
Prizes to encourage Hindi Writers of Non-Hindi Speaking Areas Writers of Non-Hindi Speaking areas whose mother-tongue is not Hindi are awarded a Cash Prize of Rs. 1500/-. A total of 16 such awards have been instituted for writers of different Non-Hindi languages.
Award of Scholarships for the Study of Hindi 2500 scholarships were awarded during the year for the study of Hindi at the Post-Matric stage for students belonging to the Non-Hindi Speaking States.
Financial assistance to voluntary Hindi Organisations During the year 1978-79 about 140 voluntary Hindi Organisations are expected to avail themselves of financial assistance to
140
the extent of Rs. 29 lakhs for the spread and development of Hindi. These organisations have been running free Hindi classes, Hindi typing classes and holding conferences and seminars apart from bringing out publications and running Hindi libraries.
Opening of Hindi Medium Sections in the Colleges of Non-Hindi
Speaking States Grants to meet deficit of expenditure on account of the opening of Hindi Medium Sections in existing colleges in Non-Hindi Speaking States was given to two colleges in Andhra Pradesh and one in Karnataka during 1977-78 on the recommendations of the respective State Governments.
Other Schemes To help in the change over of the medium of instruction to Hindi for higher scientific and Technical Education and the promotion and development of Hindi as a link language, the Central Hindi Directorate, which was set up as a subordinate office of the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare in 1960, has been implementing a number of schemes. The Progress on these schemes during 1978-79 is as under :-
Hindi Through Correspondence Courses The scheme of teaching Hindi to non-Hindi knowing people including foreigners was introduced in 1968. The courses are conducted through the medium of English, Tamil and Malayalam. More than 17000 Indian students were enrolled during the year under report. Help material such as bilingual conversational guides and 16 discs covering 32 lessons have been prepared. Special courses for Central Government Employees to prepare them for Probodh, Praveen and Pragya Examinations are also being conducted.
As part of correspondence course, the Central Hindi Directorate conducts Personal Contact Programmes to help learners to improve their spoken Hindi. This year, these programmes were organised at Trivandrum, Madurai, Madras, Trichurapally, Durgapur, Calcutta, Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay, Coimbatore and Salem.
141
Encouragement and guidance to Non-Hindi Speaking Students
and writers of Hindi To encourage Hindi writers of Non-Hindi Speaking areas, 3 Neo Writers' Workshops were held at Vidya Nagar, Aurangabad and Annamalai.
Travel grant to 20 Research students of Non-Hindi speaking areas @ Rs. 360/- per student was given 5 Prizes of Rs. 15001 each were also announced for Hindi Writers of the Non-Hindi speaking areas.
Publications of Popular Books in Hindi This scheme. which aims at the dissemination of scientific knowledge, is implemented with the cooperation of private publishers. So far 296 books have been pub- lished under this scheme.
Publications The Central Hindi Directorate is bringing out, regularly, the following publications :
(1) UNESCO Doot
(Hindi Edition of UNESCO Courier) Monthly
(2) Bhasha-Quarterly
(3) Varshiki-Annually
(in four parts)
Book Exhibitions The exhibitions of Hindi books are held at the time or National Book Fairs, Conferences/Seminars with a view to apprising the general public about the development of Hindi and to popularise scientific and Technical literature in Hindi. The Central Hindi Directorate organised 14 Book Exhibitions during the year under report.
Free Gifts of Books in Hindi To encourage reading of Hindi Books in Non-Hindi speak- ing areas and foreign countries, books are purchased
142
and distributed free of cost by the Central Hindi Directorate. During the year, 1080 titles worth Rs. 6.00 lakhs were distributed. Books in foreign countries are distributed through Indian Missions abroad.
Evolution of Scientific and Technical Terminology Comprehensive glossaries of Technical terms relating to Agriculture and Engineering are under print. During the year under report, Hindi equivalents of about 19,000 terms for use in different departments/offices were finalised.
Definitional Dictionaries/Digests and Monographs 10 Definitional Dictionaries in various subjects have been prepared. 5 more such Dictionaries relating to Che- mistry, Physics, Home Science, Economics and Anthropology are under print.
An Encylopaedia of Social Sciences of Hindi on the basis of international Encyclopaedia, in four parts, is being prepared.
Social Sciences Digest has been published and Physics Digest is under print. These digests are produced to acquaint the Industrial Workers with latest researches in different subjects of their interest.
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.
During the year under report, 33 foreign nationals from 13 countries which include France, USA, UK, West Germany, Poland, China and Japan etc. have been admitted and granted scholarship for study of Hindi. The foreign nationals are also paid air-passage both ways from their country and back. Three Hindi lecturers working in the three Caribbean countries i.e. Trinidad, Surinam and Guyana are being maintained and the entire expenditure on their salaries etc. including air-fare is borne by this Ministry under the Scheme. Two part-time teachers are also being paid honorarium for teaching Hindi in Sri Lanka.
143
A Hindi scholar from Saugar University, was sent to Russia to deliver lectures on different aspects of Hindi language and literature at the Asian and African Language Institute, Moscow.
Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal (Kendriya Hindi Sansthan Agra,
Delhi, Hyderabad and Shillong) During the period under report, the Sansthan continued to devote its attention mainly to train a large number of Hindi teachers of northeastern states, namely, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh where the paucity of Hindi teachers is felt. The Sansthan has also been preparing Hindi textbooks and other teaching materials for these States.
The Sansthan has started a B.Ed. level correspondence course in Hindi teaching for untrained in-service Hindi teachers of non-Hindi speaking States. During the year under report, the Sansthan has admitted 844 persons, in different courses of the Sansthan at its four centres. The Sansthan has also published seven books as reading material for the Department of the Official Language. Another set of seven books is under preparation. The Sansthan has also published 10 books on various subjects whereas three more are in press. The research journal 'Gaveshna' is also being published by the Sansthan apart from 'Sansthan Bulletin'.
A seminar on 'Hindi-Urdu Lexicography' was organised by the Sansthan with the cooperation of Jamia Millia, Delhi. The Sansthan has also organised two All India Hindi Elocution Competitions for trainees of Hindi Teacher's Training Colleges situated in non-Hindi speaking States 42 students and teachers of 12 universities participated in these competitions. About 900 books on the various subjects such as Linguistics, language-teaching and Hindi Literature etc. were purchased for the Sansthan library The Language Laboratory of the Sansthan has prepared teaching material and 20 lessons for Assam.
B. PROMOTION OF MODERN INDIAN LANGUAGES
Production of University Level Books in Hindi and Regional
Languages A programme for the Production of books of University level was launched in 1968-69 with a view to facilitating early adoption of Indian languages as media of instruction in as many disciplines as possible. Under this programme about 4700 books have been published out of which 950 are translations and about
144
3000 books are in the pipeline. The current year's budget provision far this scheme is Rs. 150.00 lakhs. Grants totalling Rs. 1038.07 lakhs have been given till the end of December, 1978.
Book Production through CSTT The Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology selected 827 titles, out of which 101 titles have been published, 69 are press ready and 646 are under process.
Core-Book Production Programme Core-books in history and medicine are being brought out by the ICHR and NBT respectively. In medicine, two books have been published, one book has been assigned to publisher for printing, nine books are under preparation with authors/editors and four titles are under consideration. In Hindi ICHR have selected 557 titles/manuscripts for publication in various Indian languages.
National Award for writers of standard books The Scheme was launched to encourage Indian authors writing original standard works of university level in Indian languages. It envisages Award of Prizes to authors for original books of university level published within a specified period of time. The Scheme was originally with the U.G.C. and has since been taken over by the Ministry.
Production of Books in Urdu In pursuance of the above decision, the Government set up in June 1969 Taraqqi Urdu Board to advise the Government on the production of academic literature in Urdu. This Board was reconstituted on November 10, 1978 with the Minister of State in the Ministry as its Chairman. The Bureau for Promotion of Urdu which functions as the office of the Board was declared a subordinate office with effect from 5 November 1977. Under the guidance of the Board, about 550 titles have been selected for translation/original writing. Out of these nearly 140 titles have been published. These comprise university level books, school textbooks, popular science books, children's literature, supplementary readers, general books and reference works. Several manuscripts are in press and in various stages of editing.
145
As calligraphy is an integral part of Urdu, Book Production, three calligraphy centres have been set up at Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad for the training of calligraphists, while assistance is provided to the extent of 50 per cent of expenditure to the Academy of Arts and Languages (Srinagar) and Bihar Urdu Akademy for their calligraphy centres.
The Bureau has formulated a proposal for teaching Urdu to non- Urdu speaking people through correspondence courses. A certificate course and diploma course have been worked out. This scheme will be implemented in the next year.
Production of Books in Sindhi This scheme was taken up in the latter part of 1975 under the guidance of an Advisory Committee of Sindhi scholars. The objective of this scheme is to bring out educative books in Sindhi for the benefit of Sindhi students. The implementation of the scheme has been entrusted to the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology. Under this scheme two reference works, namely, Sindhi-English Dictionary and Sindhi Grammar have been printed. A number of manuscripts for higher secondary students in various disciplines are under preparation and 5 manuscripts are in press. To encourage Sindhi writers, a scheme of award of 5 prizes has been taken up. Forty-five entries under this scheme have been received.
CENTRAL INSTITUTE OF INDIAN LANGUAGE, MYSORE The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore was set up in 1969 with the objective of promoting the study of modern Indian Languages and through such activities creating an emotional empathy between the people of the different regions of the country. The programmes of the Institute are geared to encourage the study of Indian languages by those who do not have that language as their mother-tongue. This will also facilitate the implementation of the three-language formula. The main activities of the Institute are centered around language teaching, linguistic research, preparation of teaching materials studying of tribal languages and dialects, socio- linguistic research and studies on folklore.
(i) Tribal and Border Languages Unit An Adult Literacy Workshop was organised and literacy materials were prepared in Manipuri, Miri, Bhuti, Sema, Konyak and Kuvi.
146
The first draft of grammars of Mishmi, Konyak and Apatani was prepared and the work on the dictionary of these language's progressed. Ahgami, Hindi Dictionary, Ladakhi grammar and Adult reader were completed.
(ii) Cartography Unit The literacy Atlas of India based on 1961 and 1971 Census data was released in the month of October, 1978. The Atlas contains 23 maps on Literacy in terms of male, female, rural, urban, district and state showing decennial variation over the decade.