 PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES

The activities and programmes undertaken in the field of languages can be broadly grouped as under :

A. Promotion of Hindi (as envisaged tinder Article 351 of the Constitution).

B. Promotion of Modern Indian Languages (as provided in the National Policy on Education, 1968).

C. Promotion of English and other foreign languages (as provided in the Education Commission's Report).

D. Promotion of Sanskrit and other classical languages such as, Arabic and Persian.

Apart from the schemes directly executed by the Ministry, the following institutions/organisations set up by the Ministry pursued the implementation of the various programmes in the field of languages

1. Central Hindi Directorate, New Delhi.

2. Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, New Delhi.

3. Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra.

4. Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.

5. Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.

6. Bureau for Promotion of Urdu, New Delhi.

A. PROMOTION OF HINDI

The Ministry continued to provide facilities for the teaching of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states by (i) providing financial assistance to non-Hindi speaking- states for appointment of Hindi teachers in their schools; (ii) providing financial assistance to voluntary organisations to enable them to hold Hindi teaching classes, maintaining libraries and reading rooms; (iii) providing assistance for establishing Hindi teachers training colleges; (iv) award of scholarships to students belonging to non-Hindi speaking states for the study of Hindi beyond matric stage; (v) conducting and expanding programmes of organising correspondence courses, for teaching of Hindi; (vi) providing Hindi books to various organisations; and (vii) organising research on methodology of teaching Hindi through Kendriya Hindi Shikshan Mandal, Agra.

Appointment of Hindi teachers in Non-Hindi Speaking States/Union Territories

Central aid on 50 : 50 sharing basis is given to non-Hindi speaking States/Union Territories for appointment of Hindi teachers under this Central Plan Scheme for the propagation of Hindi. Against the total Budget provision of Rs. 27.00 lakhs for the year Rs. 25.23 lakhs has already been released as on date.

Opening of Hindi Teachers'Training Colleges in Non-Hindi Speaking States/Union Territories

Central assistance on 100 per cent basis is given under this scheme to non-Hindi speaking states and union territories. Against the total budget provision of Rs. 10 lakhs for the year 1982- 83 cases for the release of Rs. 7.30 lakhs have already been processed as on date.

Financial Assistance to Voluntary Hindi Organisations

Over the years the number of organisations seeking financial assistance under the scheme is progressively increasing. With Government --------- some of these organisations have ------- in to gigantic institution ------------ simultaneously in more than one -------- While in the earli----------------

were generally sought for running Hindi classes, conducting courses in Hindi typing and shorthand, establishment of libraries and reading rooms etc., quit a number of organisations are now coming up with requests for grants for training of teachers, publication of Hindi journals, conducting Hindi examinations, instituting prizes as well as for advance work in Hindi, Hindi is, thus, catching up well in the non-Hindi speaking regions.

During the year 1982-83 financial assistance to the extent of Rs. 47 lakhs will be rendered to about 130 voluntary Hindi organisations including an amount of Rs. 6.30 lakhs to the Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha for organising the third Vishwa Hindi Sammelan during the current year.

Central Hindi Directorate

The Central Hindi Directorate is engaged in the implementation of the schemes pertaining to propagation and development of Hindi such as teach- ing of Hindi through correspondence courses to the non-Hindi speaking Indians and foreigners, preparation of bilingual and trilingual dictionaries of Indian languages and of foreign languages and conversational guides etc. The Directorate has also taken up various schemes of extension programmes.

The progress made in the implementation of these schemes during 1982-83 is as under :-

Teaching of Hindi through correspondence courses

The work of teaching Hindi through correspondence courses was in the year 1968. It was mainly meant for Indians from non-Hindi speak- ing areas and for foreigners, who are not in a position to learn Hindi through regular classes. The medium of instruction of these courses was English in the first instance and subsequently Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali have also been introduced. During the period under report, 6939 students were enrolled under this scheme. Out of these, 2086 were enrolled under medium of English, 4284 through the medium of Tamil, 446 through the medium of Malayalam and, 123 through the medium of Bengali. There are two preliminary courses of two years' duration each viz. 'Hindi Pravesh and 'Hindi Parichaya'. A special course is being conducted for Government servants and arrangements have been made to, teach Hindi for three Hindi examinations viz., 'Prabodh', 'Praveen' and 'Pragya', conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs. All these courses are of one year duration each. The number of students enrolled under these courses for this year is 3983. Only a nominal fee of Rs. 30/- a year is-charged from the Indian students and Rs. 416.50 a year from the foreign students. During the year under report, a sum of Rs. 2,43,199.61 was collected as fees in Indian currency in addition to $ 732 and _ 207 received in foreign currency.

The Directorate is holding personal contact programmes in different parts of the country for familiarising the students with pronunciation, spellings of Hindi etc. These programmes are necessary to supplement the main scheme of teaching Hindi through correspondence courses, During the year under report, 18 programmes were held-Durgapur (3), Bhilai, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Calcutta, Coimbatore, Salem, Trivandrum, Cochin, Madras (2), Bangalore, Asansol, Bombay, Pondicherry and Tirunelveli.

The Directorate has also prepared three sets of Hindi records with English, Tamil and Malayalam commentary. These records help in the proper picking up of pronunciation and accent of spoken Hindi. Bilingual Conversational Guides, bilingual self-taught books and Primer for foreigners have also been published by the Directorate. Prizes are also being given to those who secure high positions in the examinations. Help literature is also being provided to students, who are enrolled for these correspondence courses. During 1982-83, 1820 students appeared in the examination held in Decem- ber 1982 and the result is still awaited.

Extension Programmes

These programmes are organised to reach the Hindi students, Hindi writers, Hindi scholars and the research students of non-Hindi speaking areas. Under these programmes, workshops for neo-Hindi writers of regional languages are organised, study- tours for, Hindi students of non-Hindi speaking areas, lecture tours for professors of Hindi in Hindi speaking and non-Hindi speaking areas are arranged. Prizes are given to Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas.

During the year under report, five workshops of neo-Hindi writers have already been organised in different parts of the country. In these workshops 125 trainees and 20 eminent scholars took active part.

One study tour of Hindi students of non-Hindi speaking areas has been conducted in which 49 students' in all took part. A travel grant of Rs. 300/- is given to each student.

Lecture tours of prominent Hindi scholars from Hindi speaking universities to non-Hindi speaking universities and vice versa have to be organised during the year under review. Such tours facilitate to help them in understanding the progress of development as well as the problems of each other.

Prizes to Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas

With a view to encouraging Hindi writers of non-Hindi speaking areas, whose mother tongue is not Hindi, prizes of Rs. 2,500/- each are given under the scheme.

Recognition of Hindi Examinations

A number of voluntary organisations are engaged in the propagation of Hindi. They also conduct examinations. In order to promote their activities and assist these organisations, their examinations are given recognition by the Ministry. This Ministry, with the concurrence of the Department of Personnel and the Union Public Service Commission have granted recognition to Hindi examinations, conducted by 17 voluntary Hindi organisations. Most of the examinations have been granted permanent recognition on the condition that these institutions will be inspected regularly every year. These inspections are conducted by the Central Hindi Directorate through regional offices located at Hyderabad, Madras, Calcutta and Gauhati. During the year 1982-83-84 voluntary Hindi organisations were inspected.

Publications

The Directorate is bringing, out one quarterly journal 'Bhasha' and the monthly journal 'Unesco Doot' which is the. Hindi version of 'Unesco Courier', published in all the prominent languages of the world. A series of books, under the scheme of "Bharatiya Sahitya Mala" are being published. Under this scheme, 'Bharatiya Bhasha ka Itihas', 'Bharatiya Kahaniyan' have been published and 'Bharatiya Nibandh' is under printing. The manuscript of 'Bharatiya Kavita' is under preparation. During the period under review, all the issues of 'Unesco Doot' and all the issues of `Bhasha' were duly brought out.

Publication of Popular Books in Collaboration with Publishers

Under the scheme, 374 books have been published so far. During the period under review, four books were brought out and eight books are in the press.

Exhibition of Hindi Books

During the period under review, one exhibition of Hindi books was organised where books brought out by the Directorate and Hindi Granth Akademies were exhibited.

Purchase of Hindi Books and Magazines for free Distribution

Hindi books and magazines are purchased every year for free distribution to the schools, colleges and public libraries in the non-Hindi speaking States, as also to our missions abroad. The scheme is, intended to cater to the needs of Hindi knowing people and to acquaint them with the latest trends and the richness of Hindi as also the progress made by the language in different fields.

Production of Dictionaries

Twenty six bilingual dictionaries are under preparation. Manuscripts of 12 such dictionaries have been made press-ready and work on the remaining dictionaries is in progress.

Trilingual Dictionaries

Twenty four trilingual dictionaries are under preparation Complete manuscripts of 10 such dictionaries have been received.

Bharatiya Bhasha Kosh

The manuscript of this dictionary is ready for press.

Publication of German-Hindi and Hindi-German Dictionaries

The exchange of delegations of experts engaged in the project between India and the GDR took place during the year under report. Hindi equivalents of all the 45000 German entries have been coined and 17,000 entries have been finalised so far.

Publication of Czech-Hindi and Hindi-Czech Dictionaries

Hindi equivalents of all the 15,000 Czech entries have been coined and are being finalised. A delegation of two experts from India has recently visited Czechoslovakia in connection with the finalisation of Czech-Hindi Dictionary.

Scheme of preparation and publication of bilingual Conversational Guides

In pursuance of the scheme approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture, 26 bilingual conversational guides, Hindi-Regional Language and Regional Language-Hindi are to be prepared and brought out. Each guide will comprise approximately 800 sentences followed by useful glossaries, of common words. Tamil-Hindi guide has been published and Hindi- Tamil, Hindi-Malayalam, Hindi-Bengali, Hindi-Telugu, Hindi-Kannada, Hindi-Assamese and Hindi-Kashmiri guides are ready for press.

Czech-Hindi and Hindi-Czech Conversational Guides

The work on Czech-Hindi guide has been completed during the visit of Indian delegation to Czechoslovakia. Hindi-Czech conversational guide is under preparation by the Czech side.

PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES