Ambassador Speeches

Embassy of India

Bishkek

*****

(10 January, 2023; 11.30 AM)

Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kyrgyz Republic, Indologist & acting Professor of International Relations and Oriental Studies Mr. Evgeny Kablukov,

My colleagues in the Embassy,

Dear participants,

Dear Guests,

Ladies and Gentleman!

Good morning!

Let me begin by wishing all of you a very Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Successful New Year.

It is indeed a great honour and privilege for us to have Mr. Evgeny Kablukov as Chief Guest while we celebrate the World Hindi Day today. I congratulate all of you who have gathered here to commemorate this occasion. You have just heard the message of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi on World Hindi Day. As the Prime Minister had once said, “The spontaneity, simplicity and decency of a language give meaning to its expression. Hindi has beautifully incorporated these aspects.”

Friends,

World Hindi Day is celebrated on 10^th January every year. This was the day when the first World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur in Maharashtra from 10 to 12 January, 1975. Since then, this day is being celebrated in India and around the world by all Hindi enthusiasts. The purpose of the celebration is to create awareness about the Hindi language and promote it as a global language around the world. The celebration this year is special as India is marking the 75^th Year of its independence, that is, “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”.

Friends,

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by more than 400 million people globally, making it the fourth most spoken language in the world. Some people in the Trinidad and Tobago, Nepal, Suriname, Guyana, Mauritius, and Fiji also speak Hindi. It is expected that Hindi will be one of the world's most potent languages by the year 2050.

The Ministry of External Affairs has a comprehensive scheme for the promotion and propagation of Hindi abroad for the implementation of the Official Language Policy of the Government of India. The World Hindi Conference and Regional Hindi conference take place regularly. Apart from World Hindi Day on 10 January, Hindi Divas is observed on 14 September which marks the adoption of Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the official language of India. You would be happy to know that the 12^th World Hindi Conference is being organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Government of Fiji from 15-17 February, 2023 in Fiji.

Friends,

If I were to utter the following Hindi words: Kagaz, Kalam, Meiman, Divan, Dukan, Dost, Dua, Ustaad, Shagird, etc., you might be wondering whether these are Hindi or Kyrgyz words. You are right. These words are common to both the Hindi and the Kyrgyz languages. This Embassy worked with the National Commission on State Language and Language Policy under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic to publish a “Kyrgyz-Hindi Dictionary of Common Words”. This was released by our External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar in October 2021 during his official visit to the Kyrgyz Republic. I am sure some of you would have seen it and discovered that there are so many common words between our two languages.

Friends,

To celebrate this Day, the Embassy had organized four Hindi competitions for Hindi lovers residing in the Kyrgyz Republic. It is matter of satisfaction for us that we received several entries from various parts of the country. I congratulate all the winners and participants for their dedication and love for Hindi.

I am further thankful to the collective efforts made by all of you and my colleagues here to mark this Day and to popularize the Hindi language. I firmly believe that these efforts will go a long way in the promotion and propagation of Hindi.

Thank you all for joining us today!

******