Dr Bunwaree: "Mauritius is an example for other countries"

World Hindi Day is commemorated since 2008 every year on January 10. In Mauritius, it is an occasion to ponder on the language.

The World Hindi Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources and the Indian High Commission along with other local institutions celebrated the World Hindi Day at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture (IGCIC), Phoenix, on Tuesday.

This year, to mark the occasion, Prof. Danuta Stasik, a renowned Hindi scholar from Warsaw University, Institute of Oriental Studies in Poland was the chief guest. In her keynote address, she highlighted the international dimension of the language and explained how in Poland, Hindi is a language which is taught up to tertiary level. During her stay, Prof. Danuta Stasik will conduct interactive sessions with local academics, writers and students on Hindi.

For Dr Bunwaree, Education Minister, it is an honour that India entrusted Mauritius in the setting up of the World Hindi Secretariat whose aim, he said, is to make Hindi one of the official languages at the United Nations.

"Among countries outside India where Hindi is spoken, Mauritius is counted among the first countries to work towards this objective," he said, adding that the Government is fully contributing to achieving this.

He added that his Ministry is continuously working on improving the teaching and learning of Hindi which is taught at primary, secondary and tertiary level.

"Besides teaching Hindi in school, we have baitkas (Hindi schools) after school hours across the country and here also we are working to make it better. Moreover, we are trying to make a maximum use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching. I make an appeal to teachers to make maximum use of this tool in their teaching," he explained.

On the occasion, the Vishwa Hindi Patrika (annual magazine) was launched. Also, a musical narrative depicting the evolution of Hindi from 14th century poetry to its modern usage in literature, media as well as highlighting its international perspective was presented by artists of the IGCIC, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute and other troupes.

Written by: Premita Leelachand

Published on: 17 January 2012

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