By Surender Bhutani, IANS
Krakow (Poland) : The Hindi language is being vigorously promoted in Poland.
After the celebration of Hindi ‘Divas’ (Day) in the Polish capital Warsaw in October, Hindi Divas was celebrated in great style in Krakow, Poland’s medieval capital.
Inaugurating the function Friday evening, Indian Ambassador Chandra Mohan Bhandari expressed his deepest satisfaction with the progress Hindi has made over the years and congratulated the department of Indology of Krakow’s Jagiellonian University for its excellent work in this regard.
“Hindi is the third largest spoken language in the world after English and Chinese. Today more than 600 million people are conversing in Hindi and every day a few more millions are getting attuned to Bollywood films. This is a global phenomenon which has to be accepted by scholars and laymen alike,” said Bhandari.
“Time has come when the United Nations should give proper status to Hindi in its working like other five international languages,” said Umesh Nautiyal, president of the India Polish Cultural Committee.
Nautiyal, who is also a teacher of Hindi at Krakow University, has done yeoman service to promoting the language in eastern Europe. To him language is an essential tool to promote culture and he hoped that the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) will give generous assistance to promote Hindi in Poland.
During the function, Magdalena Slusarczak was felicitated with a citation by the ambassador for her contribution to promote Hindi language at Krakow University.