President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said a strong, self-reliant and developed India can only be built on the foundation of the country's native languages
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WARDHA — President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said a strong, self-reliant and developed India can only be built on the foundation of the country's native languages.
A single stream of culture, sensitivity, and consciousness flows through all the diverse languages of India, she said, urging people to learn at least one Indian language besides their mother tongue.
President Murmu was speaking at the sixth convocation of the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University in Maharashtra's Wardha.
"In 1936 right here in Wardha, Mahatma Gandhi, along with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Acharya Kaka Kalelkar established the 'Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti' to promote and propagate Hindi language. Notably, Mahatma Gandhi's mother tongue was Gujarati, Netaji's was Bengali and Kakasaheb's was Marathi," she said.
"These great souls recognised the power of Hindi as a medium for patriotism and national unity, and they harnessed it. During the freedom struggle, Hindi played a vital role in uniting the people across the country. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave his call of 'Give me your blood and I will give you freedom' in Hindi," the President added.
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She praised the university for its name, saying that naming it after the Father of the Nation was entirely in keeping with history.
"India's soul finds expression in Indian languages and a single stream of culture, sensitivity, and consciousness flows through all our diverse Indian languages," she said.
"That is why I or other Odia speakers like me can connect effortlessly with Munshi Premchand's stories or Mahadevi Verma's poems in Hindi while reading their Odia translations. Similarly, Hindi readers connect with Odia litterateurs like Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopinath Mohanty and Pratibha Ray. Our national song 'Vande Mataram', composed in a mix of Bengali and Sanskrit, binds the emotions of all Indians into one thread," President Murmu said.
She urged the students to take pride in the heritage of India and its languages.
With this sense of national pride, focus especially on two national goals - eradicating the remnants of a slave mentality and restoring the prestige of India's knowledge traditions, she added.
"I often quote a line from a popular Odia poem, and I find it relevant today - 'Learn as many other languages as you can, but honour your mother tongue'," she said.
"All Indian languages are our own. Every Indian should learn at least one more Indian language besides their local one," Murmu said.
Mahatma Gandhi stressed the promotion of Hindi. He did not oppose English, but gave priority to Indian languages. He considered education as the foundation of self-reliance and stressed that only education connected to the needs of most people's lives is meaningful, according to her.
President Murmu said that our own language alone can be the language of creation, exploration, original thinking and invention.
She called for building a strong, self-reliant and developed India.
"Such an India can only be built on the foundation of Indian languages. Therefore, we must focus in this direction," she said.
Murmu noted that through efforts like the National Education Policy (NEP), the country was moving in the right direction.