Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday extended his greetings to people on Hindi Diwas and highlighted the importance of India’s rich linguistic diversity. He said India’s many languages are not a weakness but one of the country’s biggest strengths. According to Shah, every language carries its own history, traditions and unique way of understanding life.

Shah said Hindi has played an important role in connecting people from different parts of the country, but its growth should not come at the cost of other Indian languages. He stressed that Hindi should work alongside other Indian languages and help strengthen communication and national unity. He also recalled the contributions of leaders whose mother tongue was not Hindi. He mentioned Swami Dayanand Saraswati, whose mother tongue was Gujarati but who wrote Satyarth Prakash in Hindi, and Mahatma Gandhi, who helped promote Hindi in South India.

Speaking about his own background, Shah said Gujarati is his mother tongue, but Hindi often provides an easy way to communicate with ordinary people across different parts of India. He also highlighted the role of Hindi literature, including the works of Tulsidas and Surdas, in taking ideas and emotions to common people.

Shah further said that Indian languages are gaining new opportunities in education and technology. Engineering and medical courses are increasingly becoming available in Indian languages, while competitive examinations are also being conducted in multiple Indian languages. He said artificial intelligence and translation technology are helping reduce language barriers and making communication between Indian languages easier.

Giving a message to the younger generation, Shah said people should learn as many languages of the world as they want, but should never abandon their own language. He also urged parents to speak to their children in their mother tongue as much as possible. He said speaking one’s own language should never be seen as a sign of being less modern or less capable.

Shah concluded by calling for Hindi and all Indian languages to move forward together as India works towards the goal of a developed nation by 2047.