World Hindi Day celebrations in Colombo
Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC), the cultural arm of the High Commission of India in Colombo, is organizing the World Hindi Day in Colombo from Jan. 10-11.
The two-day event is being held at Sri Lanka Foundation and SVCC in collaboration with the University of Kelaniya, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Rajarata University, Visual and Performing Arts University of Sri Lanka, and Karma Devi Memorial P G College of India.
High Commissioner Shri Santosh Jha inaugurated the event with Dr. Susil Premajayantha, Hon’ble Minister of Education, the Chief Guest for World Hindi Day.
The State Minister of Education A. Aravind Kumar attended as the Guest of Honour.
During the inaugural speech, the High Commissioner highlighted the growing importance of Hindi as an international language. Today, it is the third most widely spoken language in the world with about 600 million speakers globally.
He also recalled SVCC’s activities for promoting the language over the last year, including scholarships to Hindi students for study in India, assistance in Hindi language capacity building of professors and school teachers, etc.
Appreciating the institutions and scholars of Hindi in Sri Lanka, he commended the attendees for embracing the language and thanked them for collaborating in the event.
The first day saw paper presentations in three plenary sessions by 25 Hindi scholars.
Topics ranged from the impact of Buddhism on Hindi literature to the popularity of Hindi in Sri Lanka.
More than 200 scholars and students participated on day one.
Day two of the conference will have Deputy High Commissioner Dr. Satyanjal Pandey as the Chief Guest with nearly 20 research presentations by students of Hindi.
Qualifying certificates of Hindi examinations organized by the Central Institute of Hindi, Govt. of India, will also be distributed to the Sri Lankan students.
World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 yearly to commemorate when Hindi was first spoken in the UN General Assembly in 1949.
It was on this day in 1975 that the first ‘World Hindi Conference’ was organized.
Hindi is taught as a foreign language in 88 schools and 7 public universities of Sri Lanka.