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 1979-80 in accordance with the Government of India's policies. The activities and programmes undertaken in this field could be broadly grouped as under :-
A. Spread and Development of Hindi B. Promotion, of Modem Indian Languages C. Promotion of English and other foreign languages D. 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 :
1. Central Hindi Directorate
2. Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology
3. Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Agra
4. Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore
5. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad
6. Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi
7. 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 assistance to these States for appointment of Hindi teachers in their schools; and for training of their Hindi teachers; (ii) award of scholarships to students belonging to non-Hindi speaking
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States for the study of Hindi beyond the matriculation stage; (iii) assistance to Voluntary Hindi Organisations to enable them to hold Hindi teaching classes and maintain libraries and reading rooms; (iv) continuing and expanding the programmes of Hindi correspondence courses conducted by the Central Hindi Directorate; (v) providing books in, Hindi to various organisations; and (vi) organising research on methodology of teaching Hindi through Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Agra.
Appointment of Hindi Teachers in the Non-Hindi Speaking
States/Union Territories Up to the end of the 5th Five Year Plan, grants were given to the various non-Hindi speaking States/Union Territories for appointment of approximately 30,000 teachers in their schools. From 1979-80 however, the financial pattern of this scheme, which was on 100% basis previously, was revised to make it 50 : 50 sharing basis, with a view to involving the Governments/Union Territories of the non-Hindi speaking States more actively in this programme.
Assistance for training of Hindi Teachers in the Non-Hindi Speaking
States/Union Territories Nineteen Hindi Teacher Training Colleges had been opened in the non-Hindi speaking States up to the 5th Five Year Plan. From 1979-80, this scheme has been converted into a Central scheme. Under the revised scheme, provision for financial assistance on account of developmental activities of the existing institutions set up in the States/Union Territories with the Central grant has also been made.
Prizes to Encourage Hindi Writers of Non-Hindi Speaking Areas Writers of non-Hindi speaking areas whose mother tongue is riot Hindi are awarded a cash prize of Rs. 1,500 each. A total of 1.6 such awards have been instituted for writers of different non-Hindi languages. Sixteen awards for the year 1976-77 and 15 awards for the year 1977-78 and 1978-79 have been announced. Entries have been called for 1979-80.
Financial Assistance to Voluntary Hindi Organisations During 1979-80, about 130 voluntary Hindi organisations have been, sanctioned financial assistance to the extent of
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Rs. 28.50 lakhs for the spread and development of Hindi. These organisations have been running free Hindi classes and holding conferences and seminars apart from bringing out publications and running Hindi libraries.
Other Schemes To facilitate the change over of the medium of instruction in the field of higher, scientific and technical education, to Hindi, and for the promotion and development of Hindi as a link language, the Central Hindi Directorate, has been implementing a number of schemes. The progress of the various schemes during 1979-80 is as under :-
Hindi Through Correspondence Courses The scheme of teaching Hindi to non-Hindi knowing people including foreigners has been in operation since 1968. The courses are conducted through the media of English, Tamil and Malayalam. From 1979-80 the courses are also being conducted through the medium of Bengali. More than 1,000 students were enrolled during the year under report. Supplementary material such as bilingual conversational guides and gramophone discs have been prepared. Special courses for Central Government employees to prepare them for Prabodh, Parveen and Pragya examinations were also conducted. As a part of the correspon- dence courses, the Central Hindi Directorate conducted 11 personal contact programmes. During the year 1979-80, these programmes were held at Trivandrum, Madurai, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Bombay, Durgapur, Salem, Tiruchirapalli and Coimbatore.
Encouragement and Guidance to Non-Hindi Speaking Students and
Writers of Hindi To encourage Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas, three workshops of neo-Hindi writers were organised at Bangalore, Allahabad and Goa. The study tours of Hindi students of non-Hindi speaking areas were conducted in which 93 students took part. Travel grant at the rate of Rs. 350 per student was given to 19 students of the non- Hindi speaking areas for visiting universities and Hindi libraries in the Hindi speaking States. Lecture tours of five eminent Hindi scholars from Hindi speaking universities to non-Hindi speaking universities and vice-versa were organised during the year.
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Publication of Popular Books in Hindi So far, 309 books have been brought out under the scheme, including 12 books published during the year under report, with the co-operation of the private publishers.
Publications The Central Hindi Directorate is bringing out regularly the following publications :-
(i) Unesco Doot (Hindi Edition of UNESCO Courier) monthly.
(ii) Bhasha-Quarterly.
(iii) Varshiki-Annually-(In 4 parts)
Book Exhibitions Exhibitions of Hindi books were held at Allahabad, Bangalore and Delhi. The Central Hindi Directorate also participated in the annual book fair organised by the National Book Trust. Books were also sent for exhibitions held at Cairo, Dacca, Hongkong, Iraq and Moscow.
FreeGifts of Books in Hindi To encourage reading of Hindi books in, non-Hindi speaking States and foreign countries, books are purchased and distributed to the schools, colleges and public libraries in the non-Hindi speaking States and to countries abroad through the Indian Missions free of cost by the Central Hindi Directorate. During the year under report, copies of 179 titles were purchased.
Evolution of Scientific and Technical Terminology During the year under report manuscripts, of 40 books on Agriculture, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy, Philosophy and Veterinary Science have been sent to the press for publication by the Central Hindi Directorate.
Definitional Dictionaries/Digests/Monographs During the year under report, the definitional dictionaries of educational terms were prepared. Manuscripts of definitional
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dictionaries relating to commerce, philosophy, economics, anth- ropology, home science, medicine, economics have been sent to the press. Digests relating to botany, home science and anthropology have been published and those relating to physics and zoology are in the press.
Propagation of Hindi Abroad The scheme was initiated in the 4th Five Year Plan to promote Hindi abroad mainly in Caribbean countries of SouthEast and West Asia and in the advanced countries like the UK, the USA, the USSR, France, Federal Republic of Germany and Japan. During the year under report 32 students from China, Japan, Fiji, Guyana, Poland, the USSR, the UK, Holland and the USA have been admitted in the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, New Delhi for learning Hindi. Of the 32 students, scholarships are being paid to 24 nationals and the remaining are studying Hindi on their own. Three Hindi lecturers working in Trinidad, Surinam, and Guyana and one Hindi Librarian in the Hindi Library of Indian Embassy, Kathmandu are being maintained. Two part-time teachers are also paid honorarium for teaching Hindi in Sri Lanka. It is proposed to send two Hindi scholars to the USSR and Czechoslovakia during 1979-80 to give lectures off various aspects of Hindi language and literature.
Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Agra During the year under report, the Sansthan admitted about 800 students/teacher-trainees in its different courses at its four centres at Agra, Delhi, Hyderabad and Gauhati. The Sansthan has already published 11 books and another nine will be published by the end of 1979-80. Eight more books are expected to be produced during the year. The books published and produced include Hindi text books and other teaching material for the Hindi teachers of north-eastern states namely Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh. The Sansthan also proposes to send Hindi books for children worth about Rs. one lakh under the 'Gift and Donation Scheme' for libraries located in north-eastern states. The Sansthan is also preparing material for B.Ed. level Correspondence Course in Hindi teaching for untrained in-service Hindi teachers in non-Hindi speaking states.
About 1,000 books on various subjects such as Linguistics, Language Teaching and Hindi Literature etc. were added to the Sansthan Library. A workshop-cum-seminar in lexicography
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was held in, Agra. The Sansthan is also publishing a Research Journal 'Gaveshan' apart from 'Sansthan Bulletin'.
B. PROMOTION OF MODERN INDIAN LANGUAGES
Production of University Level Books in Hindi and Regional
Languages The programme for production of university level books 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 more than 5000 books have been published out of which more than 965 are translations and a large number of books are in the pipeline.
Book Production through Commission for Scientific and Technical
Terminology The Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology selected 827 titles, out of which 136 have been published, 41 books are in the press and another 50 books are under process. Three half-yearly journals, two for medical students and one for engineering have also been published. Besides, four Readings/ Digests/Definitional Dictionaries have also been published and six more are under preparation.
Core Book Production Programme Core books in history and medicine are being brought out by Indian Council of Historical Research and National Book Trust respectively. The production of core books in history by Indian Council of Historical Research has been discontinued in view of unsatisfactory progress. In medicine, two books have been published and two are expected to be published next year. A Colour Atlas of Tropical Dermatology has been taken up under the scheme. Besides, seven more books have been assigned and five titles are under consideration for assignment to the experts.
National Award for Writers of Standard Books The scheme was launched to encourage Indian authors producing 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 results of the first award will be made during the year under report.
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Production of Books in Urdu The Taraqqi Urdu Board was set up in 1969 to advise the Government on the production of academic literature in Urdu. This Board was re-constituted in November, 1974 with the Minister of State in the Ministry as its Chairman. The Board was declared a subordinate office from November, 1977. Under the guidance of the Board, about 550 titles have been selected for translation/original writing. Out of these, 180 have so far been published. These comprise university level books, school textbooks, popular science books, children's lite- rature, supplementary readers, general books and reference works. Eight books are in hand and 25 are ready for the Press. In addition, an English-Urdu Dictionary and an Urdu-Urdu Students Dictionary are also ready for the press. Three calligraphy centres have been set up at Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad for the training of calligraphists. Assistance is also provided to the extent of 50% of expenditure to the Academy of Arts and Languages, Srinagar and Bihar Urdu Academies for their calligraphy centres.
A proposal has been formulated for teaching Urdu to non-Urdu speaking people through correspondence courses. A certificate course and diploma course have been worked out.
Production of Books, in Sindhi The objective of the scheme, started in 1975, 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. Five manuscripts which were in Press are likely to be published this year. Fifteen more books in various disciplines for higher secondary students have been taken up. To encourage Sindhi writers a scheme of five Prizes has been taken up. Forty-five entries, under this scheme have been received,
Financial Assistance to Voluntary Organisations for Promotion of
Indian languages other than, Hindi and Sanskrit The scheme provides for financial assistance to voluntary organisations/educational institutions and individuals for propagation and development of Indian languages other than Hindi and Sanskrit.
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Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore The programmes of the Institute set up in 1969 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 centred around language teaching, linguistic research, preparation of teaching material, study of tribal languages and dialects, socio-linguistic research and studies on folklore.
Tribal and Border Languages A note on Nepali speakers in India with bibliography was prepared. Adult literacy primers were prepared in 1 1 languages. The literacy primers as requested by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh were prepared in both English and Hindi. Gondi dialect survey was completed in order to identify the variety for the purpose of standardization for preparing the primers for children and adults. Similar surveys, have been undertaken for Kurukh and Santhali. The linguistic descriptions of five languages Kuvi, Malto, Gojri, Purki, Brokskat-including Grammar and Phonetic Reader were published.
Material Production Unit Basic courses in Marathi and Tamil have been completed and the one in Telugu is in press. The second language Readers of all levels in Kannada and Tamil for non-native speakers are in the press. Question banks in all the four southern languages were finalised for the purpose of testing the level of language achievement. The correspondence-cum-broadbased course for in-service training of mother-tongue teachers), VII Standard Malayalam teachers and two packets (3 & 4) of Oriya correspondence-cum-broadbased course (Standards I, II & III) have been completed. The courses for VIII Standard Malayalam and Tamil teachers are in progress. Collection of 100 passages for the Bengali Bridge course to teach all language skills has been completed
Personnel Development The Institute and its Regional Language Centres conducted ten seminars on various aspects of language use in administration
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education and mass media. Two hundred and eighty five teachers from 14 States and one Union Territory are undergoing training in 13 regional languages in the centres. Refresher courses for ex-trainee teachers were conducted in, Urdu, Marathi and Tamil.
Publications Ten books have been published during the current year by the Institute.