The Department of Official Language is the Government of India's department responsible for the implementation of the provisions of the Constitution relating to official languages and the provisions of the Official Languages Act, 1963. Department of Official Language was set up in June 1975 as an independent Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs.[1]
History
The official languages of British India were English, Urdu and later Hindi, with English being used for purposes at the central level.[2] The Indian constitution adopted in 1950 envisaged that English would be phased out in favour of Hindi, over a fifteen-year period, but gave Parliament the power to, by law, provide for the continued use of English even thereafter.[3] Plans to make Hindi the sole official language of the Republic were met with resistance in many parts of the country. English and Hindi continue to be used today, in combination with others (at the central level and in some states) official languages.
The legal framework governing the use of languages for official purpose currently is the Official Languages Act, 1963, the Official Language Rules, 1976, and various state laws, as well as rules and regulations made by the central government and the states.
The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 January 1965. The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially Dravidian-speaking states whose languages were not related to Hindi at all. As a result, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963,[4][5][6][7][8][9] which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965.
Department of Official Language was set up in June 1975 as an independent Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Annual targets are set by the Department of Official Language regarding the amount of correspondence being carried out in Hindi. A Parliament Committee on Official Language constituted in 1976 periodically reviews the progress in the use of Hindi and submits a report to the President. The governmental body which makes policy decisions and established guidelines for the promotion of Hindi is the Kendriya Hindi Samiti (est. 1967). In every city that has more than ten central Government offices, a Town Official Language Implementation Committee is established and cash awards are given to government employees who write books in Hindi. All Central government offices and PSUs are to establish Hindi Cells for implementation of Hindi in their offices.[11] Department hosts various events throughout the year to promote Hindi language.[12]
Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar (for other internal government agencies)[17]
Official language Achievement Award
Ministry of Home Affairs in its order dated 25 March 2015 has changed name of two awards given annually on Hindi Divas. 'Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar' instituted in 1986 changed to 'Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar' and 'Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar' changed to "Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar".[18]
In September 2024, Chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Amit Shah set the goal of using Hindi for country's entire work by the Independence Day, 2047 when the country will mark 100-years of freedom.[19][20] The committee has developed a Hindi Shabdkosh in collaboration with Ministry of Education, adding thousands of new words from other local languages, enriching Hindi of wider vocabulary words. Department of Official Language is working on a software that enables translation of all languages of 8th Schedule to Hindi automatically.[21][22]
See also
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