Fiji to Host Regional Hindi Meet Next Week
The first Regional Hindi Conference will mark the beginning of a new era to save the Hindi culture and language in Fiji.
Fiji will host the Regional Hindi Conference in Suva next week.
The event is organised by the Indian government and will be held on January 25, at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva.
Indian High Commissioner to Fiji Padmaja Ji said the promotion of the Hindi language was important because it enhanced and eased communication between Fiji and India. “We also want iTaukeis to learn and understand the Hindi language and Indo-Fijians to understand the iTaukei language,” Ms Padmaja Ji said.
The event will be inaugurated by the Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Civil Service and Communications, Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum, and the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Vellamvelly Muraleedharan.
It will attract Hindi scholars, authors, poets, and Government officials from Fiji, India and the Pacific region.
Ms Padmaja Ji said the conference would be a curtain raiser event for the next World Hindi Conference, which will be held next year.
“Scholars from different countries will discuss the progress of Indian culture and new trends of the Hindi diaspora,” Ms Padmaja Ji said.
Five scholars will represent the Pacific region and five from India.
“We have also invited all Fiji university lecturers and teachers to be moderators of the event,” she said. Ms Padmaja Ji said Fiji was a unique country where Hindi was an official language, and also made compulsory to learn in school. “Many countries do not have this diaspora and in this way Fiji was unique as it is preserving the Hindi culture,” she said.
Seventy to 90 scholars from Fiji are expected to attend the conference. The Indian High Commission introduced a logo for the conference, which signified the arrival of the Girmityas who brought Hindi into the country.
“Hence the use of coconut trees, blue ocean and the rising sun. The sail boat has Fiji written in Hindi. “The canoe is revered in the Fijian tradition,” she said.
Ms Padmaja Ji said the logo was an attempt to highlight the geographical, historical and traditional significance of the first regional Hindi conference.