The 12th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan started in Fiji’s Nadi on Wednesday. Before the start of the same, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister, Biman Chandra Prasad, announced that Hindi will now be recognized as one of the languages of the Parliament of Fiji, and this filled all the Hindi lovers with a new zeal. Now, along with English, Hindi will also be used as a medium to work in Fiji’s Parliament.
Welcome at the Sammelan took place with the Swasti Vachan, as per Hindu tradition, and whole of the atmosphere has been painted in Indian colours. In the population of 9 lakh in Fiji, around 37% are Indians, who never let one feel in Fiji that they are thousands of kilometres away from their country. An Indian can feel at home here, and people of Fiji are more excited for the Hindi Sammelan as compared to Indian people.
More than 300 representatives including academicians and writers from India have reached the Sammelan, and in all, representatives from 50 countries are taking part in the same. Here, it will also be mulled over to get Hindi included in the UN’s list of official languages. All across the globe, more than 80 crore people’s language is Hindi. The Sammelan was kicked-off by Indian External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, and Fiji’s Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka. The theme of the Sammelan is, ‘From Hindi-traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence’.
The Ministry of External Affairs has said that with this theme, India wants to showcase that while on the one hand, we are respecting our traditional knowledge, on the other hand, we show that Hindi is capable of moving hand in hand with technological growth. During the Sammelan, the development of Hindi in this era of new technology will also be discussed.