World Hindi Day celebrated at Indian High Commissioner’s office in Kandy
“World Hindi Day” was celebrated by the Kandy Indian High Commissioner’s office with the reading of a message by the President of India on the importance of Hindi byRaakesh Nataraj. the Assistant High Commisiner in Kandy.
He was also the Chief Guest on this ocassion and the event was held at Mahaweli Reach Hotel under Health requirements. The Guest speaker at this celebration DrBrezilNagodaVithana was the Senior Lecturer in Hindi at the University of Sabaragamuwa. In his speech, he too emphasised the importance of Hindi as a language and the global situation of Hindi.
“Hindi is being taught not only in Sri Lanka but also all over the world. Hindi language is spoken by more than 615 million people around the world. People of more than 32 countries are learning Hindi at more than 105 universities all over the world. There are 32 universities in the USA, 14 universities in Germany, six universities in Russia and ten in Japan which teach this language,” he said.
“Hindi is being taught at these universities at certificate, diploma, under graduate and post graduate levels. The reason to hold World Hindi Day on January 10 annually, is because first World Hindi summit was held in Nagpur in 1975 and from that day onwards all Hindi lovers, students, foreign students who learn Hindi and diaspora Indians celebrate this day, to mark the summit held in 1975. Furthermore, the former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh requested to celebrate this day officially in all Indian Missions all over the world,” he added.
Sri Jayawardenepura Senior Lecturer Dr WajiraGunasekera also made her observations in a speech. Certificates and prizes were distributed to participants who took part in various online competitionsfrom various educational centres.