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History of the Hindi Language

Vikas V

The Hindi language is widely regarded as the language of India. Despite the country having 22 official languages, Hindi is the most widely spoken. More than 425 million people speak Hindi as their primary language, and an additional 120 million are learning Hindi as a second language in India.

Besides English, Hindi writing is also used for all official communications since the Indian Union Government adopted the Hindi language in 1950. The process through which the Hindi language became the language of India is fascinating. It is an Indo-European language primarily spoken in northern and central India, a region known as the Hindi Belt. It is a member of an Indic dialect continuum bordering Nepali to the north, Punjabi to the northwest, Sindhi to the west, Urdu to the southeast, Gujarati to the southwest, Marathi to the southeast, and Oriya to the east.

The Hindi language is known as the Delhi dialect of this language continuum. Although people had been learning Hindi language 
and writing Hindi for hundreds of years, it was overshadowed by Urdu. The Urdu language was the language of India until the War of Independence, after which Hindi took over. Aside from speakers in India, there are Hindi-speaking populations in surrounding countries, the US, South Africa, and Fiji. In fact, it is the 3rd most spoken language in the world!

If you’re interested in learning Hindi language, its history and glory
, you’re in the right place!

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This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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Hindi   Native
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