PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES
The programmes undertaken for the development and promotion of
languages can be broadly grouped as under :
Promotion of Hindi
Promotion of Modem Indian Languages
Promotion of English and other Foreign Languages
Promotion of Sanskrit and other classical languages, such as Arabic
and Persian.
The following institutions/organisations which the Ministry has set up
were concerned with the operation of various programmes of languages :
Central Hindi Directorate, New Delhi, and its regional officers at
Calcutta, Gauhati, Madras and Hyderabad.
Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, New Delhi,
Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra, and its Centres at New Delhi,
Hyderabad and Gauhati.
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.
Bureau for Promotion of Urdu, New Delhi.
Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.
Kendriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi.
A. PROMOTION OF HINDI
The Department continued to provide facilities for the teaching of
Hindi in non-Hindi speaking States by providing financial assistance for the
appointment of Hindi teachers in schools, establishment of teacher training
colleges for Hindi teachers, award of scholarships to students belonging to
non-Hindi speaking States for the study of Hindi beyond matriculation
stage, and organisation of correspondence courses for Hindi. Grants were
given to voluntary organisations for establishing classes for teaching of
Hindi shorthand and typewriting. These organisations were, also assisted
for bringing out publications of different kinds. Under another programme,
Hindi books worth Rs. 2.00 lakhs were distributed among educational
institutions. 'The Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra, continued its training
courses and research in the methodology of teaching Hindi.
Appointment of Hindi teachers Central aid on a matching basis is given to non-Hindi speaking States
in non-Hindi speaking and 100% assistance to, Union Territories for the appointment of Hindi
States/Union Territories teachers under a centrally sponsored Plan scheme.
and Establishment of Teachers
Training Colleges
Central assistance on 100% basis is given to non-Hindi speaking States
and Union Territories for the establishment of Hindi teachers training
colleges. So far 19 training colleges have been established in non-Hindi
speaking States/Union Territories with Central assistance.
Financial Assistance Over the years, the number of organisations seeking financial assistance
to Voluntary Hindi under this scheme has increased. Some of these organisations have grown
Organisations in importance operating simultaneously in more than one State. While
grants were formerly sought for running of Hindi classes, courses in Hindi
typewriting and shorthand, and establishment of libraries and reading
rooms, a number of organisations are now coming up with proposals for
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the training of teachers, publication of Hindi Journals, conducting of Hindi
examinations, instituting prizes, and for advanced research in Hindi.
During the year 1985-86 financial assistance will be given to about 140
organisations.
Central Hindi Directorate The Central Hindi Directorate undertakes a number of activities for
the propagation and development of Hindi. These include teaching of
Hindi to non-Hindi speaking Indians and foreigners through correspon-
dence courses, preparation of bilingual and trilingual dictionaries of Indian
and foreign languages and preparation of conversational guides etc. Some
of the important programmes undertaken during the year are, briefly des-
cribed below.
Teaching of Hindi The Directorate has organised correspondence courses since 1968 for
through Correspondence the teaching of Hindi to People belonging to non-Hindi speaking areas and
Courses to foreigners. Initially, these courses were offered through the English
medium, but in the recent years Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali are also
used for the purpose. During the year 14,394 students were enrolled.
2853 students have enrolled for the medium of English, 5120 for Tamil,
366 for Malayalam and 760 for Bengali. The Directorate provides
instruction for Pravesh and Parichaya courses which are of two-year
duration each, and Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya of one-year duration each.
The last three courses are designed for government servants and the exami-
nations are conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs. During the year
5259 students were, enrolled in these courses. The Directorate has also
started a new course in October 1984 for teaching of Hindi through cor-
respondence to the IAS probationers. of the States/Union Territories in the
Eastern Region. Teaching materials have been prepared and personal con-
tact has also been organised.
As part of its correspondence courses, the Directorate organises per-
sonal contact programmes in different parts of the country for familiarising
students with pronunciation and spellings of Hindi language. Nine such
programmes were organised at Shillong, Madras, Kohima, Cochin, Hydera-
bad, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Trivandrum and Durgapur.
Glossaries, grammar, textual materials, response, sheets and other lite-
rature, have been published for students enrolled in various courses. A
comprehensive consolidated glossary is to be brought out. The manuscript
of the glossary has been prepared. Efforts are also being made to analyse
and deal with the, difficulties experienced by the students, and for this
purpose films and Hindi records have been developed. Action is being
taken to prepare audio cassettes. The second edition of the Bilingual Con-
versational Guide (Hindi-English) is under print. As many as 5367
students appeared in the- Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya examinations held
in November, 1985. One thousand and fifty-seven students took the
Hindi Pravesh and Parichaya examinations, and 892 students were
declared successful.
Extension Programmes The Directorate undertakes various extension activities to popularise
Hindi in the non-Hindi speaking regions, of the country, so as to bring
scholars, professors, students, and other citizens of the, Hindi and
non-Hindi speaking areas together. These activities include workshops
for neo-Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas, student tours,
lecture tours, by scholars, travel grants for research students of non-Hindi
speaking areas, award of prizes to Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking
areas for their literary work in Hindi. The Directorate also organised
two, symposia on Indian literature.
Workshop for Hindi Writers Five such workshops were organised during the year at Warangal,
of non-Hindi speaking Calicut, Hyderabad, Madras and Manipur. Another workshop is planned
Areas in Calcutta. More than 100 writers from non-Hindi speaking States
participated in these workshops. These workshops provided 'for inten-
sive orientation to writers in the latest trends of creative writing in
respect of poetry, drama, fiction, one-act plays, novels etc.
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Tours and Travel Grants Two groups of So students each of non-Hindi speaking areas are
taken on conducted tours to universities and voluntary organisations of
Hindi speaking areas every year so as to enable them to acquire under-
standing of Hindi language as spoken in daily life and to gain knowledge
of latest trends, in Hindi literature. Two such tours were organised
during 1985-86.
Travel grants of Rs. 450/- each are awarded to 20 research students,
every year. The students have been selected this, year also. Eight pro-
fessors visit Hindi and non-Hindi speaking areas to deliver lectures.
Four Professors have completed their lecture tours, the remaining would
be completed by March 1986.
Symposia Every Year two symposia on Indian literature are being held in
the Universities. The symposia were held this year at the Udaipur and
Osmania Universities.
Award of Prizes Under this scheme, 16 prizes each of Rs. 2500/- are awarded
annually to non-Hindi speaking writers for their books in Hindi. Eighteen
prizes were awarded together during 1983-84 and 1984-85. For
1985-86, 15 writers have been selected.
Publications The Directorate issues the quaterly journal 'Bhasha', and the monthly
journal 'Unesco Doot', the latter being the Hindi version of the Unesco
Courier published in 28 prominent languages of the world. During 1985-
86 four issues of Bhasha (i.e. March-Dec.) were published, out of
which the March and June issues were jointly published as the Silver
Jubilee Issue'. The Unesco Doot has been brought out upto November
1985. The Directorate also publishes 'Varshiki', being a detailed
survey of various disciplines of literature written each, year. The Varshiki
1982-83 is with the press and work on Varshiki 1984 is progressing.
Under the scheme 'Bharatiya Sahitya Mala', the titles 'Bharatiya
Bhashaon Ka Sankshipta Itihas', 'Bharatiya Kahaniyan' and 'Bharatiya
Nibandh' have already been publisher. The manuscript of 'Bbaratiya
Kavita' is with the press. The manuscript of 'Bharatiya Ekanki' is
being prepared.
To improve the sale of books, a number of activities were under-
taken such as advertisement through the media, personal contacts with
educational institutions and libraries and exhibition of books etc. Nine
exhibitions of Hindi books of the Directorate were organised. The year's
sale of books has exceeded Rs. 1 lakh.
The Directorate makes available useful Hindi books and magazines
free of cost to readers in non-Hindi speaking areas and abroad, in order
to create interest in reading and teaching of Hindi language and
literature. Books purchased during the 1984-85 have already been
distributed to, beneficiary institutions, and sent to the Indian Missions
abroad.
Production of Dictionaries Six out of 26 bilingual dictionaries, viz. Hindi-Gujarati, Hindi-
Sindhi, Hindi-Marathi, Hindi-Assamese, Hindi-Urdu and Hindi-Tamil,
have been published and the material for Hindi-Telugu, Hindi-Malayalam
and Hindi-Oriya dictionaries have been sent to the press. These are
likely to be published this year. As regards trilingual dictionaries, Hindi-
Gujarati-English (3 volumes) has already been published, and the
manuscripts of Hindi-Tamil-English, Hindi-Kannada-English and Hindi-
Malayalam-English has been sent to the press. Bharatiya Bhasha
Kosh where equivalents to Hindi words have been given in 13 Indian
languages has already been published.
The press copy of Tatsam Shabda Kosh is likely to be sent to press
shortly. The manuscript of Bharatiya Bhasha Parichaya Kosh is being
prepared.
The Central Hindi Directorate is also engaged in preparing Hindi
and foreign language dictionaries. Since the last year, 2800 entries of
the German-Hindi dictionary were finalised with more than 8000
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entries having been edited earlier. The fair copy of the Czech-Hindi
Dictionary has been transliterated in Devanagari script. The manu-
sript of the Hindi-Czech Conversational Guide is ready for publication.
The manuscript of Hindi-Russian Conversational Guide is press-ready
and the USSR side is being contacted for its publication. The manuscript
of Hindi-Hungarian Conversational Guide has been prepared and is being
corrected by the Hungarian experts.
Bilingual dictionaries of Hindi-UNO Languages (except English
and Russian) viz. Spanish Chinese, Arabic and French are being prepared.
Each bilingual dictionary will contain 2500 entries which include basic
terms of Hindi vocabulary and diplomacy. The press copy of Hindi-Arabic
Dictionary has been sent to Government Press, Faridabad, and the
press copy of Hindi-Spanish and Hindi-Chinese are likely to be sent
shortly. The Hindi-French dictionary will be press-ready shortly.
Production of Standard This scheme, started in 1975, aims at the production of standard
Literature in Sindhi literature in Sindhi, including reprinting of rare books, classical and text-
books for secondary and university levels. Under this scheme, 20
books have been published. A seminar was organised in January 1985 in
Ulhasnagar on Sindhi Press Writing. Another seminar was organised
in September 1985 in Bhopal on the great Sindhi poet 'Saami. A Neo-
writers' workshop was also organised in 1985 in Delhi, to discuss
'Palaeography' in Sindhi. A neo-writers' workshop is planned in Feb-
ruary 1986 at Agra. Meetings of the expert panel were held in August
1985 for 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. Sindhi books worth Rs. 20,000/- are likely
to be imported from Pakistan for free distribution.
Commission for Scientific, The functions of the Commission for Scientific and Technical
end Technical Terminology Terminology are : to evolve scientific and technical terminology in Indian
languages; prepare reference material in Indian languages, survey,
review and collect the, available terminology in Indian languages and evolve
a Pan-Indian terminology; foster the 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 Tech-
nical Terminology in the implementation of various schemes during 1985-86
is as follows :-
Production of University- Under this scheme, monitored by the Commission, 6675 books in
level books Hindi and in the regional languages have been published on 30 subjects
covering nearly all the disciplines of humanities, social sciences, basic
sciences and applied sciences. Out of these 1,560 books have been
published in Hindi by the various Hindi Granth Akademies, the Cells in
the selected Universities, as well as by the Commission itself. So far
1700 books relating to agriculture, medicine and engineering have been
published in Hindi together by the Commission, the various Hindi
Granth Academies and University Book Production Units. During the
year 14 books were published and some are under print. The titles
include translations and original writing. The books in Hindi on
Agriculture, Engineering, and Medical subjects are mainly produced by
the Commission.
The off-take of the books produced under this scheme has been
slow, partly because the tardy switch-over to Indian languages as media
of instruction at the university stage. As on March 1985, the value
of unsold books was around Rs. 647 lakhs.
Definitional Dictionaries Once the terminology in various disciplines is evolved, it becomes
necessary to explain them through definitions. Accordingly, the work was
continued towards preparing definitional dictionaries on various dis,
ciplines of basic sciences, social sciences, humanities, medical sciences,
pharmacy, agriculture and, civil, mechanical and electrical branches of
engineering. So far 16 definitional dictionaries on sciences-12 each on
botany, chemistry, geology, mathematics and home science and one