Amit Shah Addresses Joint Official Language Conference in Agartala

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah today addressed the Joint Regional Official Language Conference of the Eastern, North-Eastern, and Northern Regions in Agartala, Tripura. On this occasion, Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Lok Sabha MP Shri Biplab Kumar Deb, and Secretary, Department of Official Language, Smt. Anshuli Arya, along with several other distinguished dignitaries were present.

Addressing the conference, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah said that when the entire country was shackled in the chains of slavery, a young Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took a pledge to liberate the nation and establish swaraj. Shri Shah said that later, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj laid the foundation of ‘Hindavi Swaraj’. He said that true self-rule is achieved through the harmonious integration of swa-bhasha, swa-rashtra and swa-dharma. He said that today, Hindi has emerged as a major movement symbolizing a return to one’s own identity.

Shri Amit Shah said that for many years, propaganda was carried out against Hindi that it was being imposed. He said that there can never be any conflict between Hindi and regional languages, because they are all like sisters born of the same mother—having grown and progressed together. He said that Hindi can never be in competition with languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, or Malayalam. He added that whenever Hindi is promoted, all these languages are automatically strengthened as well.

Union Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the country today stands firmly committed to learning its own languages, adopting them, and enhancing their pride. He said that it was also a misconception spread through propaganda that promoting our own languages would distance us from research & development and isolate us from the world. Shri Shah said that whether it is Germany or Japan, Korea or France, Russia or China — all these countries preserve and generate knowledge in their respective mother tongues, from education and writing to daily communication and research. They also govern their nations in their own languages, and today all these countries are at the forefront of development. He said that a country’s own language can never become an obstacle to its development; rather, a nation that conducts its affairs, education, and administration in its own language progresses more rapidly. He said that the most effective medium for explaining anything to a child in a simple manner is his or her mother tongue.

Shri Amit Shah said that the Government of India has decided that children will be imparted primary education in their mother tongue. He said that Acharya Vinoba Bhave dedicated his entire life to the promotion and propagation of the Nagari script. He was a strong supporter and admirer of Indian languages and worked earnestly for their promotion. He said that Acharya Vinoba Bhave thought two steps ahead in this direction. He recognized that India has many languages with their own scripts, but there are also several dialects that do not have a separate script. Therefore, these dialects should also be preserved and documented. He said that if dialects are to be documented and compiled, a common script would be required for them, and it was from this idea that the concept of the Nagari script emerged.

Union Home Minister said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is organizing a major India AI Impact Summit, in which scholars from around the world have participated. He stated that the Nagari script is considered highly compatible with computers and one of the most scientific scripts. He said that whether it is Sanskrit, Hindi, or the Nagari script, if we connect the Nagari script with all the dialects of the country, the task of preserving more than 2,000 dialects of our nation will automatically be accomplished, and they will never become extinct. He said that to preserve these dialects, we need to further strengthen and advance the movement for the Nagari script. In the coming days, all dialects will certainly move forward in adopting the Nagari script to give their speech a longer life, and that will be a historic day for us.

Union Home Minister said that today several important books were released and AI-powered smart glasses were distributed to visually impaired persons. These glasses are especially designed to read out written text in various languages, including Hindi and Bangla, enabling users to easily understand the content. He said that this voice-based control device is capable of describing the surrounding environment, reading text aloud, performing multilingual translation, and carrying out other functions.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that the eight states of North-East India, including Tripura, are known as ‘Ashtalakshmi’, symbolizing the diversity and prosperity of the region. He said that before 2014, several armed groups were active in the North-East. Shri Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, 21 agreements have been signed since 2014 to establish peace in the North-East, as a result of which more than 11,000 youths have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society. He said that today the region is moving steadily on the path of development. He further said that tourism in the North-East is growing rapidly and investment has also increased. Over the past ten years, through these peace agreements Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has played a decisive role in transforming the North-East from a land of conflict into a land of development.

Shri Amit Shah said that the most suitable place to strengthen Indian languages and the Official Language is the North-East itself, where more than 200 languages and dialects are spoken across eight states. He stated that the North-East is home to more than 200 tribal groups, with clusters of 160 tribal communities residing in the region. It also has over 50 unique festivals and more than 30 traditional dance forms, which are recognized and appreciated across the country. He said that if there is a treasure trove of culture anywhere in India, it is in our North-East

Shri Amit Shah said that wherever culture is rich, languages are also rich, because a vibrant culture cannot exist without vibrant languages. He stated that if those who create disputes in the name of language wish to understand the coexistence of languages, they should visit Tripura. He said that there has never been any conflict in Tripura over language, and that all three local languages here have grown and progressed together in parallel.

Union Home Minister said that the Official Language should not be merely a medium of communication. He stated that when it comes to policymaking and nation-building, it is the Official Language and our Indian languages that can make the greatest contribution. He said that many distinguished personalities from the North-East have brought recognition to the region across the country and the world through Hindi. Shri Shah mentioned that Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Tripura’s sons S. D. Burman and R. D. Burman, Danny Denzongpa from Sikkim, and Zubeen Garg, along with many others, gained national and international fame through Hindi. For them, Hindi became a platform to reach a wider national audience. The Official Language served as a medium to connect with the entire country, and the same principle applies to every state.

Shri Amit Shah said that most of the great personalities who made significant contributions for the promotion and preservation of the official language throughout their lives were not from Hindi-speaking regions. Nevertheless, these eminent individuals not only propagated Hindi as the official language but also strongly advocated for it as the link language of the country, because they understood that in order to advance the nation, it is essential to strengthen and broaden the official language.

Union Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Department of Official Language has launched significant initiatives such as Bharati – Bahubhashi Anuvada Sarthi (Multilingual Translation Charioteer), the memory-based translation system ‘Kanthasth’, and ‘Hindi Shabd-Sindhu’. In particular, ‘Hindi Shabd-Sindhu’ is a comprehensive dictionary in which 84,000 words from various languages of India have been incorporated into Hindi, with the aim of making Rajbhasha Hindi even more enriched and complete by drawing from the richness of all Indian languages. So far, 13 volumes of this work have been dedicated to the President of India.

Union Home Minister appealed to all parents to communicate with their children at home exclusively in their mother tongue and to ensure that children are taught their mother tongue. He said that if a child is deprived of their mother tongue, they will become disconnected from local literature, poetry, proverbs, the history of their region, and ultimately from our entire culture. If we wish to keep our children connected to India, to their respective states, to our values, and to our culture, then all mothers and fathers are earnestly requested to converse with their children in the mother tongue at home. When a child naturally learns and speaks their own language, their power of expression, analytical ability, decision-making capacity, and the ability to implement decisions will multiply manifold. All these qualities are deeply intertwined with language.