PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES
The activities and programmes undertaken in the field of languages can
be broadly grouped as under :
A. Promotion of Hindi (as envisaged in Article 351 of the Cons-
titution).
B. Promotion of Modern Indian Languages (as provided in the
National Policy on Education, 1968).
C. Promotion of English and Other Foreign Languages (as provid-
ed in the Education Commission's Report) and
D. Promotion of Sanskrit and other Classical languages such as,
Arabic and Persian.
Apart from the schemes directly executed by the Ministry, the follow-
ing institutions/organisations set up by the Ministry pursed the implemen-
tation of the various programme, in the field of languages
1. Central Hindi Directorate, New Delhi.
2. Commission for Scientific & Technical Terminology, New Delhi.
3. Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra.
4. Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.
5. Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad
and
6. Bureau for Promotion of Urdu, New Delhi.
A. PROMOTION OF HINDI
The Ministry continued to provide facilities for the teaching of Hindi
in Non-Hindi speaking States by (i) providing financial assistance to non-
Hindi speaking States for appointment of Hindi teachers in their schools:
(ii) providing financial assistance to voluntary organisations to enable
them to hold Hindi teaching classes, maintaining libraries and reading
rooms ; (iii) providing assistance for establishing Hindi teachers training
colleges ; (iv) award of scholarship to students belonging to Non-Hindi
speaking states for the study of Hindi beyond Matric stage. (v)
continuing and expanding programmes of organising correspondence cour-
ses for teaching of Hindi ; (vi) providing Hindi books to various organi-
sations ; and (vii) organising research on methodology of teaching Hindi
through Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Agra.
Appointment of Hindi teachers in Central aid on 50:50 sharing basis is given to non-Hindi speaking States-/
non-Hindi speaking States/Union Union Territories for appointment of Hindi teachers under the Central Plan
Territories scheme for the propagation of Hindi. Against the total budget provision
of Rs. 27.00 lakhs for the year 1983-84 an amount of Rs. 12.00 lakhs has
already been released as on date.
Opening of Hindi teachers training Central assistance on 100 per cent basis is given under this scheme to
colleges in non-Hindi speaking non-Hindi speaking States and Union Territories. Against the budget of
States/Union Territories Rs. 10.00 lakhs for the year 1983-84, cases for the release of Rs. 6.00
lakhs have already been processed as on date. So far 19 training colleges
have been established in non-Hindi speaking States/Union Territories.
Financial assistance to voluntary Over the years, the number of organisations seeking financial assistance
Hindi organisations under this scheme is progressively increasing. With Government assistance.
some of these organisations have "own into gigantic institutions operating
simultaneously in more than one State. While in the earlier years, grants
were generally sought running Hindi classes, conducting course in
Hindi typing and shorthand, establishment of libraries and reading rooms
etc. Quite a number of organisations are now coming up with requests for
67
grants for training of teachers, publication of Hindi journals, conducting
Hindi examinations, instituting prizes as well as for advance work in Hindi.
Hindi is, thus, catching up well in the non-Hindi speaking regions.
During the year 1983-84 financial assistance to the extent of Rs. 47.00
lakhs will be rendered to about 130 voluntary Hindi organisations.
Central Hindi Directorate Central Hindi Directorate is engaged in the implementation of schemes
for the propagation and development of Hindi. Some of these schemes are:
teaching of Hindi through correspondence course to the Non-Hindi speak-
ing Indians and foreigners: preparation of bilingual and trilingual dictionaries
of Indian languages and foreign languages and conversational guides etc.
The Directorate has also taken up various schemes under its extension
programme.
Progress made in implementation of these schemes during 1983-84 is
given hereunder
Teaching of Hindi through
Correspondence Courses. The work of teaching Hindi through correspondence courses was start-
ed in the year 1968. It was mainly meant for Indians from Non-Hindi
sneaking areas and foreigners, who are not in a position to learn Hindi
through regular classes. The medium of instruction of these courses was
English in the first instance and subsequently Tamil, Malayalam and Ben-
gali have also been introduced. During the period under report, 14333
students were enrolled under this scheme. Out of these, 3458 were en-
rolled under medium of English, 5701 through the medium of Tamil, 568
through the medium of Malayalam and 494 through the medium of Ben-
gali. There are two preliminary courses of two years duration each viz.
Hindi Pravesh and Hindi Parichaya. A special course is being conducted
for Government servants and arrangements have been made to teach Hindi
for three Hindi examination, viz. 'Prabodh', 'Praveen' and 'Pragya' con-
ducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs. All these) courses are of one year
duration each. The number of students enrolled under these-courses for
this year is 4112.
The Directorate is holding personal contact programmes in different
parts of the count for familiarising the students with pronounciation,
spellings of Hindi etc. These programmes are necessary to supplement
the main scheme of teaching Hindi through correspondence courses. During
the year under report. 19 programmes were held-Durgapur(3), Bhilai,
Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Calcutta, Coimbatore, Salem, Trivandrum,
Madras (2) Bangalore Asansol, Bombay, Pondicherry, Tirunelveli, Gau-
hati and Cannanoor. In addition, four more Personal Contact Program-
mes are going to be held in Madras, Cochin, Calcutta and Tirunelveli.
The Directorate has also prepared three sets of Hindi record to help
in the proper picking up of pronounciation and accent of spoken Hindi.
Bilingual Conversational Guides, bilingual self-taught books and Primer for
foreigners have also been published by the Directorate. Prizes are also
being given to those who secure high positions in the examinations. Help
literature is also being provided to students, who are enrolled for these cor-
respondence course. During 1993, arrangements were made for 2117
students to appear in the Hindi Prabodh /Praveen/Pragya examinations held
in November, 1983 results of which are still awaited. Besides, 824 students
appeared at the Hindi Pravesh and Parichaya examinations 1983 out of
Which 690 were declared successful.
Extension Programmes
These programmes were organised to reach the Hindi students. Hindi
writers, Hindi scholars and the research students of non-Hindi speaking
areas. Under these programmes, workshops for neo-Hindi writers of
regional languages are organised, study tours for Hindi student of non-
Hindi speaking areas lecture tours of professors of Hindi in Hindi speaking
and non-Hindi speaking areas are arranged. Prizes are given to Hindi
writers of non-Hindi speaking areas.
During the year under report, six workshops of neo-Hindi writers have
already been organised in different parts of the country. In these work-
shops, 136 trainees took active part.
68
Two study tours of Hindi students of non-Hindi speaking areas have
been conducted in which 73 students in all took part. A travel grant of
Rs. 400/- is given to each student.
Lecture tours of Prominent Hindi scholars from Hindi speaking univer-
sities to non-Hindi speaking universities and vice versa were organised
during the year under review. Such tour facilities do help them in under-
standing the progress of development as well as the problems of each other.
Seven scholars took part under the scheme during the period under review.
Prizes to Hindi writers of non-Hindi With a view to encouraging Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas,
Speaking Areas whose mother tongue is not Hindi, prizes of Rs. 2,500/- each are given
under the scheme. During the period under report, 16 writers were
awarded prizes for the year 1981-82.
Prizes to Writers for Books written Under this scheme a prize of Rs. 2000/- is awarded for writing
in Indian Languages other than Hindi, original books in any Indian language other than author's mother tongue
Sanskrit and Writers' own mother and Hindi and Sanskrit and translated work carries a prize of Rs. 1000/-.
tongue During the period under report, 6 authors were awarded prizes (4 prizes
for original writing and 2 prizes for translated work) for the years 1980-
81 & 1981-82.
Scheme for Travel Grants to Research Under the scheme during the period under review 15 scholars from
Scholars universities of non-Hindi were given travel grants of Rs. 350/- each for
studying collecting materials etc. for their research work from university
libraries situated in Hindi speaking areas.
Recognition of Hindi Examinations A number of voluntary organisations are engaged in the propagation
of Hindi. They also conduct examinations. In order to promote their
activities and assist these organisations, their examinations are given re-
cognition by the Ministry. This Ministry, with the concurrence of the
Department of Personnel and the Union Public Service Commission
have granted recognition to Hindi examinations, conducted by 17 volun-
tary Hindi organisations. Most of the examinations have been granted
permanent recognition on the condition that these institutions will be
inspected regularly every year. These inspections are conducted by the
Central Hindi Directorate through regional offices located at Hyderabad,
Madras, Calcutta and Gauhati.
Directorate is bringing out one quarterly journal 'Bhasha' and the
Publications Monthly journal 'Unesco Doot' which is the Hindi version of 'Unesco
Courier, published in all the prominent languages of the world. A series
of books, under the scheme of "Bharatiya Sahitya Mala" are being pub-
lished. Under this scheme,, 'Bharatiya Bhasha Ka Itihas', 'Bharatiya
Kahaniyan' have been published and 'Bharatiya Nibandh' is under printing.
The manuscripts of 'Bharatiya Kavita' is under preparation. During the
period under review, all the issues of 'Unesco Doot' and all the issues of
'Bhasha' were duly brought out. A special issue of 'Bhasha' (Vishwa
Hindi Sammelan) was brought out in 1983.
Publication of Popular Books in Under the scheme, during the period under review, 13 books were
collaboration with Publishers brought out and eight books are under print.
Exhibition of Hindi Books During the period under review, four exhibitions of Hindi books were
organised where books brought out by the Directorate and Hindi Granth
Akademies were exhibited.
Hindi books and magazines worth Rs. 5,84,800.00 were purchased in
Purchase of Hindi Books and this year for distribution to the schools, colleges and public libraries in non-
Magazines for distribution Hindi speaking States in India. Hindi books of Rs. 2,87,900.00 were
purchased and sent to our missions abroad. The scheme is intended to
dater to the needs of Hindi knowing people and to acquaint them with
the latest trends and richness of Hindi as also the progress made by the
language in different fields. Besides that Publications brought out by
Central Hindi Directorate/Commission for Scientific and Technical Termi-
nology in this year were distributed.
Production of Dictionaries Twenty six bilingual dictionaries are under preparation. Manuscripts
of 9 such dictionaries have, been sent to the press and work on the remain-
ing dictionaries is in progress.
69
Trilingual Dictionaries Twenty four trilingual dictionaries are under preparation. Complete
manuscripts of 7 such dictionaries have been sent to the press.
Bharatiya Bhasha Kosh The manuscript of this dictionary has been sent to the press.
Publication of German-Hindi and After discussion with German scholars till now 18,350 entries have
Hindi-German Dictionaries been finalized.
Publication of Czech-Hindi and Press copy of this Dictionary is being prepared in triplicate.
Hindi-Czech Dictionaries
Scheme of Preparation and publica- In pursuance of the scheme approved by the Ministry of Education
tion of bilingual Conversational and Culture, 26 bilingual conversational guides, Hindi-regional language
Guides and Regional language-Hindi are to be prepared and brought out. Each
guide will comprise approximately 800 sentences followed by useful gloss-
aries, of common words. Tamil-Hindi guide has been published and Hindi-
Tamil, Hindi-Malayalam, Hindi-Bengali, Hindi-Telugu, Hindi-Kannada,
Hindi-Assamese and Hindi-Kashmiri guides are ready for press.
Czech-Hindi and Hindi-Czech Con-
versational Guides Press copy of this guide has been prepared in triplicate.
Hindi-Hungarian and Hungarian- The Hungarian side has sent the draft copy of this guide with certain
Hindi Conversational Guides modifications and these are being studied for further action.
Hindi-Russian and Russian-Hindi The Russian Hindi Conversational guide has been published by the
Guide USSR, Hindi Russian guide has been modified, where necessary, ac-
cording to the suggestions received from USSR.
Bilingual Dictionaries of Hindi and On the recommendations of the evaluation committee of the Ministry
U.N.O. Languages of Education and Culture if has been decided to prepare bilingual dictio-
naries of Hindi and four UNO languages. These languages are Spanish,
Chinese, Arabic and French. There will be about 2,500-3,000 entries in
each of the bilingual dictionary. These dictionaries will include basic
terms of Hindi and of diplomacy. The editorial advisory board has been
constituted.
Tatsam Shabada Kosh
On the recommendations of Evaluation Committee for reviewing the
work of Central Hindi Directorate/Commission for Scientific and Technical
Terminology it had been decided to prepare and produce a Tatsam.
Shabada Kosh. The work was started on the scheme during the latter
part of the year 1983. Basic Terminology containing about 2,500 terms
has been prepared. This dictionary will be in 13 languages having
Sanskrit work as main entry. The project is expected to be completed in
2 years.
Production of Standard Literature in
Sindhi The objectives of this Scheme, which was started in 1975, are pro-
duction of standard literature in Sindhi including re-printing of rare
Sindhi books, classics and educational text books of secondary and Uni-
versity levels. Under this scheme so far 18 books have been published
out of which during the period under review all books have been published.
Twelve books are in press for publication. Manuscripts of 6 books are
nearing completion. One seminar of All-India level on mystic classic poet
'Shah Abdul Lateef' was organised in Bombay and two workshop of neo-
writers one on Sindhi Poetry, one on Sindhi Drama and Stage were organised
in Nagpur and Ahmedabad respectively during the year 1983. One
seminar on Identification of Scientific and Technical Terminology in Sindhi
was also held in Poona in February/March, 1983.
Commission for Scientific and
Technical Terminology The functions of the Commission for Scientific and Technical Termi-
nology are : to evolve scientific and technical terminology in Indian
languages prepare reference material in Indian languages; survey, review
and collect available terminology in Indian languages and evolve Pan-
Indian terminology: foster setting up of language bodies at regional levels.
and prepare and publish definitional dictionaries, glossaries and
lexicons.
The progress made by the Commission for Scientific and Technical
Terminology in the implementation of various schemes during 1983-84 is
as follows :