Akhil Vishwa Hindi Samiti NY recently celebrated Hindi Diwas in Flushing

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The Akhil Vishwa Hindi Samiti, New York (AVHS) recently celebrated Hindi Diwas at the Hindu Center in Flushing. Hindi Diwas is celebrated in India and Indians in other countries to commemorate the day in 1949 when Hindi was adopted by the independent India’s constitution as the language of official documents and correspondence.

In keeping with the Indian tradition, the AVHS event of September 21, began with a lamp lighting ceremony. Participating in the lamp lighting were President Dr. Bijoy K. Mehta, and executive members Dr. Bindeshwari Aggarwal, Professor Girija Shankar Dubey, Sri Jitendra Sharma, Sri Ravindra Kumar, Surinder Kathuria, and Purnima Desai. Dr. Raj Tiwari, President of the International Hindi Samiti, New York, and Pandit Ram Niwas Dixit were special guests at the event. A message of best wishes from executive Vice President Pradeep Tandon was read in absentia.

The highlight of the celebration were performances by young students of the Hindi learning classes at the Hindu Center, organized and coordinated by their teachers Ashwani Kumar and Professor Rupam Saran. Participants were awarded certificates of participation and gifts to commemorate the event.

Speaking at the event, Mehta reemphasized the importance of Hindi in America. He said it was necessary to preserve the language and, through it, Indian culture. Mehta also announced free classes at the Hindu Center to learn Hindi language for the community.

The performances were followed by a Kavi Sammelan or poetry conference. Participants were New York poets who write in Hindi, including Priyanka Tripathi, Nayana Nigliye, Rajnish Sharma, Mangla Sand, Purnima Desai, Jagdish Awasthi, and Mehta who all read their own poems.

The government of India has been holding celebratory and awareness events on that day since 1949 about the importance of Hindi as a language of everyday communication in India which is divided into states based on languages and has no common one language for communication all over India.

India celebrates its national Hindi Diwas  every year on September 14, which is different than the International Hindi Diwas which is celebrated on January 10 since it was celebrated that day in 2006 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In India, Hindi Diwas 2024 was celebrated with literary and cultural events in educational institutions including schools and colleges. Some of these institutions also organized essay writing competitions, debates and poetry recitals. Universities also held seminars on the importance of Hindi language. Public cultural festivals were held at many places. Organizations and individuals who actively promoted the cause of Hindi language were presented national awards the Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar and Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar by the President of India.

In the US, several organizations celebrated the Hindi Diwas while the Consulate General of India in different cities also held celebratory literary and cultural events.