By Haimanti Dutta Ray
Even though English is the universally accepted and understood language around the world, Hindi is the accepted language for communication – though mostly in the northern states – throughout our mainland. Even if our PM had been someone else, even then Hindi, so far as our traditional language and culture are concerned, would have been hard to replace. Gems of Hindi literature may not be many. But these jewels stand apart in the oeuvre of Indian literature by dint of their inner strengths and convictions alone.
Among the litterateurs, Munshi Premchand is one whose novels and short stories may never lose their relevance. His novel Godaan, is the magnum opus and stands tall in the Indian literary firmament. He had been a champion of the poor, of women and the underprivileged.
When I was a school goer, I had studied Hindi as one of my major languages. I was the only Bengali girl studying the language in class. Today, when the importance of the language, in both official as well as common parlance, has been established beyond doubt, I consider myself among the fortunate few. I still recall that I had won a little stipend scholarship for being a Bengali girl who had scored merit marks in the language.
Hindi literature is rich in the use of powerful and idiomatic language. Today with the celebrations of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the need to revive the literature has become urgent. Sahitya Akademi is going all out and leaving no stones unturned in this endeavor. We should all be proud that we have a national literature in our national language to boast about.
By Haimanti Dutta Ray
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