By Brajendra Nath Singh, IANS,
Johannesburg : A proposal was passed on the concluding day of the Ninth World Hindi Conference here Monday for initiating time-bound action to make Hindi one of the official languages of the UN.
Participants took oath to make coordinated efforts to achieve the goal of making Hindi, a language spoken by over half a billion people or every 10th person on the planet, an official language of the UN.
It was also decided that the World Hindi Conference would be organised with a maximum gap of three years so that the ambitious goal was achieved soon.
The first suggestion to make Hindi one of the official languages of the UN was passed at the World Hindi Conference organised in Nagpur city in India 37 years ago.
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, who attended the conference here, promised support to achieve this goal. The next conference would be held in India.
Mauritius-based World Hindi Secretariat would prepare a database of global institutions involved in promotion and teaching Hindi. A database for Hindi scholars would also be made, the proposal said.
The conference participants decided to put in efforts to make Hindi the language of technology and science.
A standard courseware would be developed for Hindi training in various countries and the Mahatma Gandhi International University, based in Wardha city in India, has been authorised to prepare this training course, the proposal said.
The conference began Sep 22 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg and was attended by 700 scholars and delegates from across the world.