Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah today addressed Hindi Diwas 2026 and the 6th All India Official Language Conference in Mumbai as the Chief Guest. On the occasion, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Ministers Shri Eknath Shinde and Smt. Sunetra Pawar, Union Ministers of State for Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai and Shri Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Secretary, Department of Official Language, Smt. Anshuli Arya among several other dignitaries were present.
Extending greetings on Hindi Diwas and Ganesh Chaturthi, Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that it is a “Manikanchan Yog” a rare and auspicious coincidence, that Hindi Diwas and Ganesh Chaturthi are being celebrated on the same day. He said that Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles would pave the way for the development of Indian languages and remove the obstacles along that path. Recalling Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on the occasion, Shri Shah said that the public celebration of Ganesh Utsav in Maharashtra was started by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak Maharaj in 1893. He said that Tilak Maharaj had correctly understood the pulse of the country. He deeply understood that awareness and cultural nationalism in India could be generated only through its culture and history. Therefore, he initiated the celebration of Ganesh Utsav and the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He said that before long, both these festivals began to be celebrated across the country. These two festivals caused considerable concern for the British. Through these festivals, Tilak Maharaj generated a tremendous wave of patriotism among the people. Shri Shah said that Maharashtra is a land of traditions and expansive thinking. He said that during the Bhakti movement, several saints from Maharashtra composed works that gave considerable impetus to the Bhakti movement across the country. He said that Maharashtra is the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who made "Swaraj, Swadharma and Swabhasha" —self-rule, one's own faith and one's own language, fundamental elements of Swaraj. By giving Marathi prominence in administration he created a rich repository of terminology in his own language. This system continued to serve as the basis of governance during the era of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Hindavi Swaraj.
Shri Amit Shah said that today the training programmes in Hindi word processing, Hindi typing and shorthand were inaugurated. Shri Shah also presented the Rajbhasha Kirti Awards and Rajbhasha Gaurav Awards. He congratulated all the recipients of these honours. Shri Shah said that today, publications such as ‘Shiv Anadi Hain, Anant Hain’, ‘Bharatiya Gyan Tantra: Srot Aur Swaroop’, ‘Andheron Se Ujalon Tak’, a special commemorative edition of the Department of Official Language’s journal ‘Rajbhasha Bharati’ centred on the National Song ‘Vande Mataram’, and ‘150 Chapters of Vande Mataram’ were released.
Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that “Vande Mataram” is not an ordinary song. It was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's great effort to awaken Indian consciousness during a period of intense colonial subjugation. Through his poetry, he sought to shake the sleeping consciousness of India. His song "Vande Mataram" written in "Anandamath", soon became a declaration of freedom throughout India. Through the call of "Vande Mataram", Bankim Chandra not only awakened a deep yearning and intense desire for freedom but also laid the foundation of India's cultural nationalism. Shri Shah said that unfortunately, "Vande Mataram" was later divided into parts. Even after Independence, it took Parliament nearly 80 years to accept it in its complete form. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is the leader who took the initiative to have "Vande Mataram" sung again at official functions in its complete form and with its full glory.
Shri Amit Shah said that the Hindi Diwas programme being held on the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj during the 150th year of Vande Mataram would take forward the journey of the Official Language and Indian languages in the coming days. Paying tribute to Maharashtra's multilingual culture, Shri Shah said that Marathi is respected here and it should be. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was the first to grant Marathi the status of a Classical Language. Konkani, Gujarati, Sindhi, Hindi, Kannada, Warli and several other languages have also developed in Maharashtra and received respect and recognition. He said that Maharashtra is the most multilingual state in the entire country. He also congratulated the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra for establishing an inclusive system in the state administration that accepts everyone.
Quoting Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Union Home Minister and Cooperation Minister said, “If I had not taken the support of Hindi, I would not have been able to take the revolutionary message of Bhoodan and Gramdan to the people in every village of Kashmir, Assam and Kerala. If I had relied on another language, I would not have been able to work in the villages at all. It was the Official Language that taught me how to communicate with every village.” Home Minister said that the Official Language has this connection with all the languages of the country because all these languages have been part of India's everyday speech for centuries and have been in mutual interaction for hundreds of years. He said that he himself comes from Gujarat, where Gujarati not Hindi is spoken. However, when he was given the responsibility of working at the national level, he faced no difficulty in working across the country because he understands and speaks Hindi. He said that the Official Language gave him a tremendous opportunity to work across the country.
Shri Amit Shah said that Maharashtra is the land of Veer Savarkar. Savarkar was one of the most learned linguists of his time. He coined many words that did not previously exist in Indian languages. All these words were readily accepted in Marathi, the Official Language and other Indian languages. He also worked to purify the Marathi language by assimilating the ideas expressed in Tilak's writings. Shri Shah said that the Department of Official Language has honoured Veer Savarkar by accepting all the words that he revised and coined in the online dictionary “Hindi Shabd-Sindhu.” He said that the makers of the Constitution deliberately and thoughtfully decided on 14 September 1949 to adopt Hindi as the Official Language. Shri Shah said that since Shri Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, the Department of Official Language has achieved numerous milestones. He said that one of the biggest initiatives was undertaken through the National Education Policy. Prime Minister Modi has made learning one's mother tongue in primary education mandatory. No child can grow into a complete individual without learning his or her mother tongue because the affection of a mother and the love of a sister or brother cannot be fully understood without one's mother tongue. Attachment to one's land, language, faith, traditions, culture and values is possible through the mother tongue. Therefore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the mother tongue mandatory in primary education. Shri Amit Shah said that a child can progress only after learning his or her mother tongue. The process of thinking begins in the mother tongue. When a person thinks, analyses and makes decisions, doing so in the mother tongue leads to better thinking, better analysis and better decisions. Shri Shah said that, alongside this, Prime Minister Modi has also made learning another Indian language mandatory. He said that those who oppose the learning of Indian languages do not realise how serious a mistake they are making. Children should learn Indian languages. Learning a second Indian language means that a child will automatically become connected with the goal of “Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat”. Along with learning their mother tongue, if children learn another Indian language, they will automatically connect with their Indian identity and, freed from narrow-minded thinking, become true citizens committed to India. He said that the government wants to enrich every language of India.
Union Home Minister said that in 2019, it was decided that the All India Official Language Conference would not remain confined to Delhi but would be organised in different states across the country on a rotational basis. Since then, today's event marks the sixth conference. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi Ji, four volumes of the Official Language Committee’s reports have been submitted to the Hon’ble President since 2019. A total of 13 volumes have been completed so far, four of them during Modi's tenure. He said that whenever Prime Minister Modi has travelled to a major global platform or another country and delivered a speech, he has spoken in the Official Language and Indian languages. Hearing the country's Prime Minister speak in his own language instead of a foreign language at major global forums fills every Indian with pride. Prime Minister Modi has also facilitated the teaching of the Official Language at universities in several countries. More than 5 lakh employees of the Government of India have been trained. The AI-based “Kanthasth 2.0” platform has been opened to foreigners as well, with more than 50 million sentences.
Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that LILA Rajbhasha and LILA Pravah (LILA – Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) have produced very good results. The “Hindi Shabd-Sindhu” dictionary, which began with 51,000 words, has now grown to 800,000 words. He said that more than 50,000 words from local languages have been incorporated into "Hindi Shabd-Sindhu", making Hindi more flexible and adaptable. He expressed confidence that by 2029, this dictionary would become the world's largest dictionary. He said that wherever there were gaps in Hindi and no word existed for a particular concept, more than 50,000 words from local languages were adopted to make the Official Language more flexible. These include Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Odia and other languages. More than 50,000 words from each language have been incorporated into "Hindi Shabd-Sindhu". He said that the Department of Official Language has developed “Bharti – Bahubhashi Anuvad Sarathi” and has also launched the “Indian Languages Section.”
Union Home Minister said that the government wants to make Indian languages languages of governance and science, enrich literature, and connect Indian languages with one another to create a vast collective linguistic resource. Whether it is the JEE, NEET or an undergraduate entrance examination, these examinations are now conducted in 13 languages.
Shri Amit Shah said that he would like to tell those who try to create disputes between languages that a child can truly understand India only through his or her mother tongue. If the child attempts to understand India through a foreign language, there is a possibility of misunderstanding it. Therefore, he urged everyone to set aside political differences and focus on promoting Indian languages. He said that among the “Panch Pran” given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to the people of the country from the ramparts of the Red Fort is the pledge to free India from the mindset of slavery.
Union Home Minister said that, when it comes to languages, there can be no greater personality than Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. He had said, “Indian culture and Indian literature are like a fully developed hundred-petalled lotus, each petal representing our regional languages. The destruction of even one petal would destroy the beauty of the lotus. Let the regional languages remain as queens in their respective provinces, while Hindi, as the central jewel among all these languages, continues to enhance the beauty of this hundred-petalled lotus.” Shri Amit Shah said that poet Rabindranath Tagore had made this observation after deep thought. He said that India's languages may certainly be different notes, but the song is one, the song of patriotism is one and the song of our culture is one. There is no objection to having many languages. The sentiment must remain Indian. There may be many dialects, but India's voice must remain one.