A World Hindi Day event organised by Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC), the cultural arm of the High Commission of India, was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute and SVCC, Colombo recently. The two-day event was held in collaboration with University of Kelaniya, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Rajarata University, Visual and Performing Arts University of Sri Lanka and Karma Devi Memorial P G College of India.
Indian High Commissioner Shri Santosh Jha inaugurated the event with Chief Guest, Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha. State Minister of Education A. Aravind Kumar was the Guest of Honour.
Indian High Commissioner Shri Santosh Jha highlighted the growing importance of Hindi as an international language. Today, it is the third most widely spoken language in the world with about 600 million speakers globally. He also recalled SVCC’s activities for the promotion of the language over last year, including scholarships to Hindi students for study in India and assistance in Hindi language capacity building of professors and school teachers.
Indian High Commissioner Shri Santosh Jha presents qualifying certificates of Hindi examinations organised by the Central Institute of Hindi, Govt. of India to students
Appreciating the institutions and scholars of Hindi in Sri Lanka, he commended the attendees for embracing the language and thanked them for collaborating in the event.
The first day saw paper presentations in three plenary sessions by 25 Hindi scholars. Topics ranged from the impact of Buddhism in Hindi literature to the popularity of Hindi in Sri Lanka. Over 200 scholars and students participated in the event.
Day two of the conference had Deputy High Commissioner Dr. Satyanjal Pandey as the Chief Guest with nearly 20 research presentations by students of Hindi. Qualifying certificates of Hindi examinations organised by the Central Institute of Hindi, Govt. of India were also be distributed to the Sri Lankan students.
World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 every year to commemorate the day when Hindi was first spoken in the United Nations General Assembly in 1949. It was on this day in 1975 that the first ‘World Hindi Conference’ was organised. Hindi is taught as a foreign language in 88 schools and seven public universities of Sri Lanka.
