Hindi Diwas 2026, Amit Shah Inaugurates the 6th All India Official Language Conference at Navi Mumbai

🗞️ Why in News On 14 September 2026, the 77th Hindi Diwas, Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the 6th All India Official Language Conference (Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhasha Sammelan) at the CIDCO Exhibition Centre, Navi Mumbai, and conferred the Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar and Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar for the year 2025-26 on ministries, public sector undertakings, nationalised banks, autonomous bodies and individuals. The two-day conference is organised by the Department of Official Language under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Hindi Diwas: The Constitutional Anchor

Hindi Diwas is observed every year on 14 September to commemorate the Constituent Assembly’s decision of 14 September 1949 to adopt Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Union under what became Article 343 of the Constitution. The first Hindi Diwas was celebrated in 1953 on the recommendation of the Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha.

The Constituent Assembly reached the decision after a long debate between advocates of Hindi and members from the non-Hindi-speaking states. The final formulation is a compromise text: Hindi is the official language of the Union, English continues as an associate official language under Article 343(2) and the Official Languages Act, 1963, and the states have their own arrangements under the Eighth Schedule, which currently lists 22 scheduled languages.

The 6th All India Official Language Conference

The 6th All India Official Language Conference at Navi Mumbai is a two-day gathering, on 14 and 15 September 2026, of the Central Official Language Implementation Committees, Central Public Sector Undertakings, nationalised banks, autonomous bodies and voluntary Hindi organisations. In his inaugural address, the Home Minister positioned Hindi as complementary to, not competitive with, other Indian languages and reiterated the government’s push to have official work in the Union move from English to Hindi and to Indian languages more broadly. The earlier editions were held at Varanasi (2021), Surat (2022), Pune (2023), New Delhi at Bharat Mandapam (2024) and Gandhinagar (2025).

The rotation of venue is by design, to signal the Union’s stated approach that Hindi’s promotion is being pursued in conversation with, not at the expense of, other Indian languages.

The Rajbhasha Puraskars

Two award streams are conferred by the President or, in her absence, by the Home Minister at every All India Official Language Conference. Both were conferred at Navi Mumbai for the year 2025-26.

Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar. For institutions (ministries, departments, PSUs, autonomous bodies, banks, town official language implementation committees) that record outstanding original work in Hindi.

Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar. For individuals who produce original writing in Hindi in the domains of science, technology, economics and administration, and for individual civil servants, bankers and PSU personnel who advance the use of Hindi in official work.

Each stream carries First, Second and Third prizes with cash awards, a certificate and a memento. Full lists of the 2025-26 awardees are published on the Department of Official Language portal at rajbhasha.gov.in.

The Statutory Frame: 1963 Act, 1976 Rules

The Official Languages Act, 1963 was enacted under Article 343(3) to provide for the continuation of English alongside Hindi for all official purposes of the Union after 26 January 1965. Section 3 of the Act allows the use of both Hindi and English for the transaction of business in Parliament, in central government correspondence, in official notifications and in judgments of the Supreme Court.

The Official Language Rules, 1976 (as amended in 1987, 2007 and 2011) organise the country into three regions:

Region A. States and Union Territories where Hindi is the official language, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Region B. States and UTs of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, and Chandigarh.

Region C. All other states and UTs.

The communication targets rise from Region A through Region C, with Region A offices expected to correspond overwhelmingly in Hindi and Region C offices expected to reply in Hindi to letters received in Hindi. Section 3(3) of the 1963 Act makes it mandatory that a specified list of documents (notifications, resolutions, general orders, press communiques, contracts and tenders) be issued in both Hindi and English.

The Eighth Schedule and the Wider Language Question

Hindi Diwas cannot be read in isolation from the 22 scheduled languages of the Eighth Schedule. The last additions were Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali by the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003. There is a long-standing demand for the inclusion of around 38 more languages, including Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Tulu, Kodava, Garhwali, Kumaoni and Khasi.

The classical language designation is a parallel track: the government has now recognised eleven classical languages, Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada and Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014) and, in October 2024, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali together. The revised criteria of October 2024 replaced the earlier 2005 criteria and dropped the standalone requirement of a body of ancient literature independent of Sanskrit.

UPSC Relevance

GS Paper 1. Salient features of Indian society, unity in diversity, linguistic pluralism.

GS Paper 2. Union-State relations; the constitutional scheme of language; Eighth Schedule and classical languages; Official Languages Act, 1963; Official Language Rules, 1976.

A question worth preparing. “The constitutional scheme on language is a settlement of federal balances rather than a promotion of any one language. Discuss the scheme with reference to Articles 343 to 351, the Official Languages Act 1963 and the recent expansion of the classical-language list. (250 words)”

The Mains framing. The promotion of Hindi and the protection of India’s language diversity are not competing goals; the constitutional scheme, from Article 343 through 351, holds them together with English as an associate. The Union’s own instruments, the 1963 Act, the 1976 Rules, the Eighth Schedule and the classical languages framework, are all consistent with that reading.

Diagram-in-Words

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

Prelims, statement-ready facts:

• Hindi Diwas is observed every 14 September, commemorating the Constituent Assembly’s adoption of Hindi in Devanagari as the official language of the Union on 14 September 1949.
• The relevant constitutional provision is Article 343; Devanagari script and the international form of Indian numerals are specified in Article 343(1).
• The Official Languages Act, 1963 allows English to continue for the Union’s official purposes alongside Hindi after 26 January 1965.
• The Official Language Rules, 1976 organise India into Regions A, B and C by the extent of Hindi use in central government offices.
• The 6th All India Official Language Conference was held at the CIDCO Exhibition Centre, Navi Mumbai on 14 and 15 September 2026, inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah; Rajbhasha Kirti and Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskars for 2025-26 were conferred.
• The Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar is for institutions; the Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar is for individuals.
• The Eighth Schedule currently lists 22 scheduled languages; Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act, 2003.
• India now recognises 11 classical languages, with Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali added in October 2024.
• The Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Wardha proposed the first observance of Hindi Diwas in 1953.
• The nodal ministry is the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Department of Official Language (established 1975).

Prelims, the traps:

• Hindi is the official language of the Union, not the “national language”; the Constitution does not use the phrase “national language”.
• The Eighth Schedule listed 14 languages originally, was expanded to 15 by the 21st Amendment (Sindhi, 1967), to 18 by the 71st Amendment (Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali, 1992) and to 22 by the 92nd Amendment (2003). Do not confuse the amendment numbers.
• Classical language status is an executive recognition by the Ministry of Culture, not a constitutional or statutory listing; the count is 11, not equal to the Eighth Schedule count of 22.
• Article 344 provides for a Commission by the President and a Joint Parliamentary Committee; the Committee is standing, the Commission was to be constituted every ten years, first by 26 January 1955.
• The Rajbhasha Gaurav award is for individual writing in Hindi on science, technology, economics and administration, not for creative literature.

Mains, arguments and keywords:

• The scheme is a federal settlement, not a single-language project: Union anchor (Article 343), state autonomy (Articles 345 to 347), the language of courts (Article 348) and Union to States correspondence (Article 348).
• English as an associate official language is a compromise designed by the 1963 Act and has become permanent by amendment because a non-Hindi state can insist on it.
• The Eighth Schedule performs a triple function: linguistic recognition, service in the Union Public Service Commission examinations under Article 351, and the base for the Sahitya Akademi and Central Institute recognitions.
• Classical language status brings scholarly funding, chairs at central universities and the Central Institute of Classical Languages; it is a cultural policy instrument, not a promotion above other Scheduled languages.
• Keywords: Article 343, Devanagari, Official Languages Act 1963, Region A/B/C, Eighth Schedule, 92nd Amendment, Rajbhasha, classical languages.

Interview, be ready for:

• “Is Hindi the national language of India?” No; the Constitution and the Official Languages Act 1963 use the phrase official language of the Union. India, by design, has no single national language.
• “How is a language added to the Eighth Schedule?” By a constitutional amendment under Article 368, initiated by Parliament; there is no automatic route from popular use to Schedule inclusion.
• “Why continue with English after 1965?” The 1963 Act, and the Nehru-era assurance that English would remain as long as a non-Hindi state wanted it, together made the arrangement a federal balance, protected by the Official Languages (Amendment) Act, 1967. It is not a transitional arrangement.

Sources: Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Official Language, PIB, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Culture

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