Mauritius Promises Support for Recognition of Hindi as Official UN Language

By Little India Desk | August 21, 2018

Mauritius will do its best to support the recognition of Hindi as an official language at the United Nations, Defense Minister Anerood Jugnauth said at the 11th World Hindi Conference in Port Louis on Aug. 21. Highlighting the important role played by Hindi in the development of Mauritius at a social, economic and political levels, Jugnauth said that his country will make efforts to expand the reach of Hindi.

“It is time that like other languages, Hindi also gets its place at the international stage. We refer to India as ‘Bharat Mata,’ which makes Mauritius its son. The son knows its duty,” Jugnauth said, PTI reported. “The son, Mauritius, will go all out to support the recognition of Hindi as an official language at the United Nations,” the Indian-origin minister added.

Acting President of Mauritius, Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, also praised the rich heritage of Hindi at the three-day event, and said that the language will strengthen world peace. Hindi is currently at a very encouraging state and it will find a place as the seventh recognized language in the United Nations, Vyapoory said, according to ANI.

On the concluding day of the event, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj distributed Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards to 10 persons of Indian origin. Sarojini Jugnauth, the wife of Defense Minister Anerood Jugnauth, and Education Minister Leela Devi Dookun were among the recipients of the OCI cards on the occasion.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar took to Twitter to share the news, calling it as the reinforcement of the emotional connect between Mauritius and India.

Reinforcing the emotional connect with India. EAM @SushmaSwaraj hands over OCI cards to 10 Mauritian nationals with Indian ancestry, including to the wife of the Mentor Minister, Lady Sarojini Jugnauth and to the Education Minister Leela Devi Dookun. pic.twitter.com/BWLUcm1LRZ

— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 20, 2018

Swaraj also remembered former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by reciting some of his poems.

Mauritian Prime Minister and Swaraj also released two new postage stamps, with one carrying the image of the national flags of both the countries while the other features the image of the national birds, peacock and dodo — symbol of this year’s conference. The dodo symbolizes the gradual obsolescence of Hindi and the Indian peacock will come to save the dodo, PTI reported.

The Hindi conference, organized during Aug.18-20 by the governments of India and the Republic of Mauritius, was also attended by Goa Governor Mridula Sinha and West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, besides other leaders from both the countries. Around 2,000 delegates from across the world participated in the event.

The theme of the conference this year was “Hindi Vishwa Aur Bharatiya Sanskriti.” Many deliberation sessions, exhibitions, kavi sammelan, and felicitation ceremony were organized during the three-day event. Scholars, academicians, teachers and institutions working for Hindi in India and other countries were honored with the “Vishwa Hindi Samman” at the conference.

The World Hindi Conference was started in 1975 to spread the Hindi language around the world. Mauritius hosted the event for the third time. The last conference was held at Bhopal in India.

Hindi is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world, behind Mandarin, Spanish, English and Arabic, and is gaining more visibility in foreign countries. It is the 11th most popular foreign language, and the most popular spoken Indian language in the United States, spoken by 810,000 people in the country, the 2016 American Community Survey revealed.

The Sri Lankan tourist police was recently directed to learn Hindi to better serve the large number of Indian tourists who visit the island nation.