PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES
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same amount will be provided to the states, participating in the scheme.
Financial Assistance to Since the inception of the First Five Year Plan, grants have been given to
Voluntary Organisations Working various voluntary organisations for undertaking activities which promote the
for the Promotion of Hindi development and use of Hindi. Over the years the number of organisations
seeking financial assistance has progressively increased. Some of the organ-
nisations have grown into gigantic institutions operating simulataneously
in more than one State. While in earlier years grants were generally sought
for organising Hindi classes, conducting courses in Hindi typing and shor-
thand and for the establishment of libraries and reading rooms, quite a num-
ber of organisations, are now sending proposals for being assisted to under-
take training of teachers, publication of Hindi Journals, conduct of Hindi
examinations, instituting of prizes and for undertaking advanced work in
Hindi. This would seem to indicate growing enthusiasm for Hindi in the non-
Hindi speaking region.
During 1984-85, the budget provision of Rs.50 lakhs is likely to be fully
utilised. This amount will be utilised for assisting about 140 voluntary organi-
sations.
Central Hindi Directorate Central Hindi Directorate undertakes various activities for the propaga-
tion and development of Hindi. Some of these include teaching of Hindi
through correspondence (to non-Hindi speaking Indians and foreign-
ers), preparation of bilingual and trilingual dictionaries of Indian and foreign
languages and preparation of conversational guides etc. Some of the impor-
tant programmes undertaken by the Directorate during the year are briefly
discussed.
Teaching of Hindi through The Central Hindi Directrate has been organising correspondence
Correspondence Courses courses for the teaching of Hindi to Indians belonging to non-Hindi speaking
areas and to foreigners since 1968. While in the beginning these courses
were taught through the English medium, Tamil, Malayalam and Bangla are
now being used for the purpose. During the year, 15657 students were
enrolled in these courses, 3 743 students being taught through the medium of
English, 5978 through Tamil, 604 through Malayalam and 581 through
Bangla. At present the Directorate is providing instruction in Pravesh and
Parichaya courses which are of two years' duration each and Prabodh, Pra-
veen and Pragya each of which is of one year's duration. The last
three courses are meant for government servants and the examinations are
conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs. During the year, 4706 students
were enrolled in these courses. The Central Hindi Directorate has also start-
ed a new course from October 1984 for teaching Hindi through correspon-
dence to I.A.S. probationers of the States/Union Territories in the Eastern
Region. Forty-five students have been enrolled. Teaching materials have
been prepared by the Directorate for these students. Personal contact of long
duration with the probationers is also visualized.
As part of the correspondence course, the Directorate organises personal
contact programme in different parts of the country for familiarising students
with pronunciation and spellings of Hindi language. Approximately 20 such
contact programmes are likely to be held, out of which 16 have already been
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organized at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Gauhati, Silchur, Hyderabad, Salem, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Durgapur, Asansol and Rourkela.
Glossaries, grammar, textual materials, response sheets and other litera- ture have been published for students enrolled in various courses. A compre- hensive consolidated glossary for students enrolled in different courses is proposed to be brought out. The manuscript of the glossary has already been prepared. Efforts are also being made to deal with the difficulties experienced by students in their studies and for this purpose films and Hindi lingua records are being developed. Action is also being taken to prepare audio Cassettes. Second edition of the Bilingual Conversational Guide (English- Hindi) has been published. During 1984, arrangements were made for 2200 students to appear in Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya Examinations held in November 1984. Seven hundred and fifty four students appeared at the Hindi Pravesh and Parichaya examinations, out of which 646 students were declared successful.
Extension Programmes The Directorate has been undertaking various extension activities with
the purpose of popularising Hindi in non-Hindi speaking regions of the
country. These activities are meant to bring scholars, professors, students
and other citizens of the Hindi and non-Hindi speaking areas together.
Among others, these activities include workshops for neo-Hindi writers of
non-Hindi speaking areas, student tours, lecture tours by scholars, travel
grants for Hindi Research students of non-Hindi speaking areas, award of
prizes to Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas for their literary work in
Hindi and prizes to authors for writing books in Indian languages other than
Hindi, Sanskrit and their mother tongue and grants to the voluntary organi-
sations working for the promotion and propagation of Hindi.
Workshops for Hindi Writers While 4 such workshops have already been organised at Darjeeling (West
of non-Hindi Speaking Area Bengal), Junagarh (Gujarat), Behrampur (Orissa) and Bombay (Maha-
rashtra), other workshops are likely to be organized at Cochin (December
1984), Pondicherry (January 1985) and Kolhapur (February 1985). More
than 100 new-Hindi writers have participated in four workshops conducted
so far. The objective of organising these workshops is to provide intensive
orientation to writers in latest trends of creative writing in respect of poetry,
drama, fiction, one act play and novels etc.
Tours and Travel Grants Two groups of 50 students each of non-Hindi speaking areas are taken on
conducted tours to the universities and voluntary organisations of Hindi
speaking areas every year so as to enable them to acquire understanding of
Hindi language as spoken in daily life and to gain knowledge of latest trends
in the Hindi literature etc. First group is likely to visit Gwalior, Agra and Delhi
in December 1984.
Travel grants of Rs. 450 - each are awarded to 20 research students. One
hundred and seventy five forms were despatched under this scheme, out of
which 23 application forms have so far been received back. It is proposed to
hold the meeting of the selection committee in January 1985. Eight profes-
sors visit each Hindi and non-Hindi speaking areas to deliver lectures. Names
of professors selected for the purpose have already been approved.
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Award of Prizes Under this scheme, 16 prizes each of Rs. 2500/- are awarded annually to
non-Hindi speaking writers for writing books in Hindi. Thirty two prizes have
to be awarded for 1983-84 and 1984-85 under this scheme. So far 36 books
have been received and more books are expected to be received in near
future.
Prizes each of the value of Rs. 2000/- are awarded for original writing and
Rs. 1000/- each for translated works every year. The scheme is being imple-
mented by the Ministry of Education through this Directorate. The number of
prizes to be awarded each year is based on the number of books received. So
far 21 books have been received. it is proposed to hold meeting of the Selec-
tion Committee in the last week of January, 1985.
Publications
Directorate is bringing out a quarterly journal 'Bhasha' and a monthly
journal 'UNESCO DOOT, the latter being a Hindi version of 'UNESCO
COURIER', published in 28 prominent languages of the world. During 1984,
four issues of 'BHASHA' (i.e. March, June, September and December) were
published. The issues of 'Unesco Doot' upto September, 1984 have been
brought out. The Directorate also publishes 'Varshiki', in which a vivid survey
of the various disciplines of literature written in the concerned year is pre-
sented. Presently Varshiki 1979 and Varshiki 1980-81 are under print. The
work on Varshiki 1982-83 is progressing.
A series of books under the scheme "Bharatiya Sahitya Mala" are also
being published. Under the scheme, 'Bharatiya Bhashaon Ka Sankshipta Iti-
has', 'Bharatiya Kahaniyan' have already been published and 'Bharatiya
Nibandh' in the current year. Manuscript of 'Bharatiya Kavita' is ready and it
will be sent to Press for printing by December, 1984. Manuscript of 'Bhara-
tiya Ekanki' is also being prepared. Nineteen books have been brought out
under this programme, with the collaboration of publishers; another 15
books are likely to be published by eary 1985.
A new section has been opened in the Directorate for the sale of Directo-
rate's publications. Books worth more than Rs. 14,000/- were sold by Octob-
er, 1984. in order to augment the sale of books and to publicize through mass
media and to make personal contacts with educational institutions and libra-
ries etc., six exhibitions of Hindi books were organised where books brought
out by this Directorate, Commission for Scientific and Technical Termino-
logy and Hindi Granth Academies were displayed.
The Directorate makes available useful Hindi books and magazines free
of cost to readers in non-Hindi speaking areas and abroad, the main purpose
being to create interest in reading and teaching of Hindi language and litera-
ture. A sum of Rs. 23,690.15 was spent under this scheme. Books purchased
during the year 1983-84 have already been distributed to 360 beneficiary
institutions. Similarly books were sent to Indian Missions abroad.
Production of Dictionaries Out of 26 bilingual dictionaries, manuscripts of nine Hindi based bilingual
dictionaries viz. Hindi-Gujarati, Hindi-Tamil, Hindi-Oriya, Hindi-Assamese,
Hindi-Marathi, Hindi-Urdu, Hindi-Malayalam, Hindi-Sindhi and Hindi-
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Telugu were sent to press. Two of these dictionaries viz. Hindi-Gujarati and Hindi-Sindhi have already been printed. Hindi-Marathi and Hindi-Assamese dictionaries are also likely to be printed soon. Again seven Hindi based trilin- gual dictionaries viz. Hindi-Gujarati-English, Hindi-Tamil-English, Hindi- Kannada-English, Hindi-Kashmiri-English, Hindi-Assamese-English, Hindi- Malayalam-English, Hindi-Sindhi-English have been sent to press. Out of these dictionaries, Hindi-Gujarati-English (Part-I) and (Part-II) are likely to be printed in the near future. Bharatiya Bhasha Kosh, where equivalents to Hindi words have been given in 13 Indian languages has also been printed.
The preparation of Tatsam Shabda Kosh, which will contain equivalents in 15 languages including Sanskrit and Hindi, has been taken in hand Basic terminoloy (Sanskrit-Hindi) has been sent to 13 experts of regional lan- guages for being rendered into respective languages. While six experts have completed the work, other experts are likely to send their material soon. In the meanwhile, the work of final editing of the entire material received and preparation of manuscript containing 15 columns, has already been started.
For preparation of Bharatiya Parichay Kosh, fifteen experts have been allotted the work of writing articles. While three of them have sent their articles, material from others is likely to become available soon. it is expected that by March, 1985 the work of editing the dictionary will be completed.
The Central Hindi Directorate also prepares Hindi foreign language dic- tionaries. During the period under review, 4100 entries of the German-Hindi dictionary were finalized, with more than 2000 entries having been edited. Another 4000 entries are likely to finalized and edited by March, 1985.
The manuscript of the Czech-Hindi dictionary with the entries pertaining to alphabets 'L', 'N' and 'P' have been prepared for printing and transliterated in Devanagari script. Manuscript of another 3000 entries in likely to be ready by the end of the year.
The manuscript of the Hindi-Czech conversation guide is ready and Czech experts have to be consulted to finalize it. On the basis of the commen- tary received from Russian experts, the Hindi-Russian Conversational guide has been reviewed and necessary corrections carried out. Russian experts are being contacted for its publication.
The manuscript of Hindi-Hungarian conversational guide is ready. Indian delegation has consulted the Hungarian experts and necessary corrections are being effected.
Bilingual dictionaries of Hindi and U.N.O. languages (except English and Russian) viz. Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and French are being prepared. Each bilingual dictionary will contain about 2500 entries, which includes basic terms of Hindi and diplomacy. Work regarding selection of terms has been completed. Spanish equivalents for 665 Hindi terms have been prepared and it is expected that by March, 1985 equivalents of another 674 Hindi terms will be prepared. French equivalents of 932 Hindi terms have been prepared. The work of transliteration of these terms is in progress. French
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equivalents of another 407 Hindi terms are likely to be prepared in the
remaining part of the year. Chinese equivalents of 932 Hindi terms have
been prepared and the work of transliteration of these terms in Devanagari is
in progress. Similarly, Arabic equivalents of 1339 Hindi terms have already
been prepared. Arabic equivalents of another 400 Hindi terms are expected
to be prepared in the remaining part of the year. Transliteration work in
Devanagari is in progress.
Production of Standard The objective of this scheme, which was started in 1975 is the production
Literature in Sindhi of standard literature in Sindhi, including reprinting of rare books, classics and
textbooks for secondary and university levels. Under this scheme, 20 books
have been published so far. During the year, five books were published.
While five other books are in press, manuscript of five more books are ready.
A seminar was organised in September, 1984 in Adipur (Kutch) on 'Kavi
Kisan Chand Bekas'. A neo-writers'workshop was also organised in 1984 at
Ajmer; the theme for discussion was 'Sindhi Novel Writing'. Another noe-wri-
ters' workshop was organised at Calcutta in December, 1984 with' Sindhi
story writing' as the theme. A neo-writers' workshop is proposed to be orga-
nised in January, 1985 at Ulhasnagar with 'Sindhi Prose Writing' as the
theme. Meetings of the Selection Committee are also likely to be held in
December, 1984 for the purpose of selection of books under the scheme of
bulk purchase of Sindhi books and for selection of books under the scheme of
award of prizes to Sindhi scholars.
Commission for Scientific The main functions of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Termi-
and Technical Terminology nology are to evolve scientific and technical terminology, prepare reference
material, survey, review and collect available terminology and evolve a pan-
Indian terminology, foster setting up of language bodies at regional levels,
and prepare and publish definitional dictionaries, glossaries and lexicons.
Definitional After the terminoloy in various disciplines had been evolved it was felt
Dictionaries necessary to explain them through definitions. Accordingly, the work of pre-
paring definitional dictionaries in basic Sciences, Social Sciences, Humani-
ties, Medical Sciences, Pharmacy, Agriculture and Civil, Electrical and
Mechanical Engineering was taken up. The work is in progress. So far 16
definitional dictionaries have been prepared in Sciences: three in Physics,
two each in Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics and Home Science
and one each in Zoology, Geography and Medicine. In Humanities and
Social Sciences, 10 definitional dictionaries have been prepared - one
each in Education, Economics, Econometrics, Social Work, Commerce, Psy-
chology, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, History and Philosophy.
Some other dictionaries are in the press. Thirteen seminars were held and
others are being arranged to discuss and finalize the definitions. Consolida-
tion, co-ordination and compilation of basic definitional dictionaries of
Humanities and Social Sciences is in progress.
Production of University In pursuance of the National Policy on Education 1968, the Commission
Level Books was entrusted the task of coordinating the production of university level
books in all the India Languages with a view to facilitating the change over of
medium of education from English to Indian Languages. So far about 6,661
books in Hindi and Regional Languages in basic and applied sciences,