Hindi hain ham, vatan hai…

Sydney’s Indian community pays tribute to the national language on Hindi Divas, MAMTA SHARMA reports.

“The first instrument of a people’s genius is its language,” said the French writer Stendhal.
Literacy, learning, social integration….everything transits through language, which embodies the national, cultural and sometimes religious identity for human beings.

Our native tongue has a special place in our hearts, whichever part of the world we choose to live in. To pay tribute to Hindi, their national language, people from the Indian community in Sydney came together to celebrate Hindi Divas 2010 on September 14 at the Parliament House of New South Wales. The program was organized by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) Australia, the institute of Indian art and culture. The date marks the 61st anniversary of the adoption of Hindi as Official Language of India by the Constitutional Assembly.

Various dignitaries from Australian politics also joined the Indian community to celebrate the day. Among those present were Mr John Aquilina (Leader of the House, Parliament of NSW), Mr Laurie Ferguson (MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services), Rob Stokes (Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for  Planning and Infrastructure representing Barry O’Farell MP) and Dr Phil Lambert (Regional Director, Sydney, NSW Department of Education and Training.)

Welcoming the guests, BVB Australia Director Abbas Alvi said, “Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding. It is a ‘link language’ which not only connects the Indian community with each other, but also with the rest of the world.”

Currently, Hindi is spoken by almost 500 million people the world over, and is the third most spoken language. Today Hindi is truly going global: Microsoft programmes, Google frames, even websites like eBay, and Facebook are coming up with Hindi versions for increasing users. Programs like text to speech, voice to text, are all available in “Devnagari lipi” on the net.

Appreciating the long association with BVB, John Aquilina said, “It is a pleasure to celebrate  the immense contribution made by the people of the Indian community and Hindi as a language, in making the multicultural lifestyle of Australia.”

He added, “To lose a facility with a language is like losing a treasured jewel. Language is the cradle of a culture, so if you lose a language you lose your culture.” All parents should impress on their children the beauty of their language and culture, he stressed.

Stating that language is an important instrument of the knowledge of people, Mr Laurie Ferguson said, “Hindi is a world-renowned language and I hope that people have a wide knowledge of this language in Australia.”

This was the first time that the Hindi Divas was being celebrated in the NSW Parliament House. “The word “parliament” comes from the French word ‘parlement’ which means ‘to talk’, so what better place to celebrate this day than in our Parliament House,” said Rob Stokes, highlighting the significance of the place chosen for celebration.

The occasion also saw the launch of the book Guldasta, a collection of Hindi and Urdu original poetry contributed by professional as well as amateur poets of Indian subcontinent heritage living in Australia. The poems in the book are based on a variety of themes like creativity, art, day-to-day life in Australia, emotions, feelings of migrants and unity in the world.

Taking about the exclusiveness of the book and the effort which went into making it happen, Abbas Alvi said, “It’s a one of a kind book. I always thought about people who like poems and can read Hindi, but miss out on poets who write in Urdu and vice versa. The result of that thought is Guldasta which is published in Hindi and Urdu incorporating translations, Hindi poetry to Urdu script and Urdu poetry to Hindi. The exclusiveness of the book is that it has poems from 47 poets in Hindi and Urdu, all Australian citizens. A total of 87 people put in their efforts to make this book happen which, apart from the poets, included 40 volunteers who knew both Hindi and Urdu well, so that no word was related in an incorrect manner.”

The unique book is an Australian initiative of BVB Australia in association with Bhavan’s Book University, Mumbai (India) and will be available worldwide through the distribution of over 300 BVB centres.

Appreciating BVB’s effort in putting together the book, John Aquilina said, “The book is an example to that the rest of the world of how the Indian community has contributed their culture to the Australian culture,” adding that he will ensure that a copy of the book was preserved in the NSW Parliament library.

“Even though the languages Hindi and Urdu come from the subcontinent, the content and feelings are from Australia. The book is a testimony of the acceptance of Australia and its culture by the Indian community,” said Consul Vivek Kumar, who represented the Consul General of India, Sydney at the occasion.

The cover of the book is appropriately designed by Utkarsh Doshi. It has an image of the map of Australia on a guldasta (vase) holding different types of flowers.

The book launch was followed by recitation of Hindi poem Ek Boond  (raindrop) by twin sisters Nabeela and Naida Rasheed in full fluency and command of the language.
Talking about their future project to promote Hindi among school children, Dr Phil Lambert said, “Our next development is with India. We will be starting a programme in primary schools in Hindi, promoting training in the language.”

Next followed a recitation of poetry from senior citizens Mr Dhan Raj Chaudhary, Mrs Vimla Luthra and Mr Santram Bajaj, capturing messages of the environment, forgetfulness by old people and unity in the world.

Acknowledgements were given to 64 people from all over Australia and, for the first time, from New Zealand for their contribution and efforts to promote Hindi as a language. The awardees from NSW included, Mala Mehta, Vimla Luthra, Rekha Rajavanshi, Shubha Kumar, Shailaja Chaturvedi, Dev Tripathi, Dhan Raj Chaudhary, Gunjan Tripathi, Meera Raheja, Rajeev Chaturvedi, Nirupama Verma, Pradeep Upadhyay, Brahma Dev, Rakesh Mathur, Richa Srivastava, Sanjeev Sharma, Anuj Kulshrestha, and Hari Parasad.

Presenting the vote of thanks, BVB Australia President Gambhir Watts said his institute knows no discrimination and sees all languages, be they Hindi or Urdu, through the Gandhian point of view.

Experts estimate that within only a few generations, more than half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world face extinction, because they are not represented in government, education and the media. Globalisation through the internet compels us to use the standard of English as a language; yet we stand to lose a lot if we abandon the command over our native languages. Events like Hindi Divas are a reminder that our national language is a cultural treasure which needs to be protected and kept alive. Critics claim that Hindi is losing its grip over English in India; however, the reality is that there is no comparison. Both are languages, a medium of communication which comes from the heart, just as a smile is universally accepted as a link between hearts and which needs and knows no official language.