75 years ago, on 14 September 1949, during the drafting of the Constitution of India, a compromise was reached between two opposing factions, on the adoption of Hindi as the official language of India's federal government, and English to be the associate official language for 15 years. This was the Munshi - Ayyangar formula and 14 September was announced as the Hindi Diwas. The first Hindi Diwas, however was celebrated in 1953, making 14 September 2024 the 72nd Hindi Diwas.

During the drafting of the Indian Constitution, there were numerous debates, one of them being the official language of India and the official language of government communication. There were two camps. Those in favour of adopting Hindi, wanted that the Modern Standard Hindi in the Devanagri script replace the British era Perso-Arabic script and Hindi be the offical language of India. The opposing camp, dominated by representatives from South India, preferred English to have a place in the Constitution.

There is no formal National Language as per the Constitution of India, but as per Article 343 of the Constitution, Hindi (Devanagari script) is the Official Language of the Central Government and the Union.

The ensuing debate, which lasted three years, gave birth to the Munshi-Ayyangar formula (named after KM Munshi and Gopalaswami Ayyangar, both members of the constitution drafting committee). As per the formula, Hindi was to be the offical language of the federal government of India, while English was to be an "associate offical language for a period of 15 years from 26 January 1950, during which the formal lexicon of Hindi would be developed. The international form of the Hindu-Arabic numerals would be the official numeral system as per the formula. However, after 15 years, the Government of India announced that English will continue to be the "de facto" formal language of the government of the Republic of India.

Our celebrations of Hindi Diwas aim to inculcate the use of Hindi in daily correspondence, official correspondence and reduce the dependence on English. As well as to preserve the nations cultural heritage and linguistic diversity.

Source Courtesy: Government Online Archives and Wikipedia