Union Minister Jitendra Singh advocates adoption of Hindi in govt offices

Chairing the 2nd Meeting of the reconstituted Joint Hindi Consultative Committee of the Department of Space (DoS) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in New Delhi on Monday, he said a lot of initiatives have been taken by the PM Modi Government to promote the use of Hindi in official communications in the last nine years, stated an official release.

"In the recent past, Hindi dictionaries have been published on technology related subjects and even medical terminology, but the legacy of 200 years under the British rule that imposed English in the Commonwealth cannot be undone in such a short time, especially since almost no sincere efforts were made in the six decades since Independence to promote the Indian lexicon," he said.

Stressing on flexibility and adaptation of a language for wider acceptance, Jitendra Singh cautioned against rigidity and literal translation, such as a dead end encountered when dealing with words like "steel plant" and "outreach".

"Each language has its own words depending on the region it is prevalent in, so we need to adapt those words rather than being rigid on finding a language equivalent term for such words," he said.

Singh directed the Department officials to be in regular touch with the members of the Hindi Consultative Committee for further promotion of Hindi in official use.

Members of the Committee gave their valuable suggestions on use of Hindi, such as commissioning dictionaries on new seed varieties and Cancer therapy accompanied by appropriate pictures of the DAE, bilingual Code Manuals, and Space Science dictionary, besides updated website of the Departments in Hindi. They also called for the promotion of Hindi in institutions of higher learning, such as IITs and technological institutes.

Members lauded the DoS for its distinction, by winning the Rajbhasha Puraskar six times, while the DAE bagged the 2nd Prize for 2021-22. (ANI)