Hindi Day 2020: Date, history and significance of the day

On this day in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi as one of the official languages of the Republic of India.

India celebrates Hindi Day, also known as Hindi Diwas, on September 14 to commemorate the adoption of Hindi in Devanagari script as one of the official languages of India.

On this day in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi -- an Indo-Aryan language written in the Devanagari script -- as one of the two official languages of the Republic of India. The other language was English.

It is said that it was the efforts of Beohar Rajendra Simha, along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das that Hindi was recognised as one of the official languages. It happened on the 50^th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha, who is known for the illustrations in the original final manuscript of the Indian constitution. This decision was ratified by the Constitution of India that came into effect on January 26, 1950.

Hindi is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the country.

Hindi day is celebrated across schools, colleges, offices and organisations across India every year. To mark the occasion, many schools and colleges organise various literary and cultural programmes, as well as competitions to showcase the importance of the day and raise awareness about the language.

Also, on the day, the President of India honours people for their contributions to the language at a function held in Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan.

However, the celebration will be different this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.