The fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English is Hindi. At the Indian state level, Hindi is the official language of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In Goa too, Hindi is taught at the school level and as the students progress to higher classes, many opt to continue their studies in the language.
A Hindi teacher for over 26 years, Meghan Biker retired just this year from teaching. However, she was instrumental in the students of Government High School, Morpirla, securing 100 percent results at the SSC exams for eight consecutive years. She not just taught the language but also made the students fall in love with its prose and poetry. “I have seen many students pursue not just graduation in Hindi but also completed BEd and have been teaching Hindi. However, I feel the quality of Hindi now written by the students has dropped since they have been using their mobiles. They are easily influenced by the videos they are watching and the pure language is changing. Besides the textbooks, we used to do a lot of essay writing and story writing sessions for the students,” explains Meghan.
At the college level, an annual and much anticipated programme in Hindi, ‘Hindi Srijanotsav 2023’ will be organised by Institute Menezes Braganza on September 15 from 9.30 am at Institute Menezes Braganza hall, Panjim. The event has always received an overwhelming response from the colleges and the students. Dr Asha Gahloth is the convenor for the event. “We see the participation of nearly 400-500 students every year from different colleges and Goa University. Different competitions are held throughout the day including essay writing, one act plays, short story writing, elocution, bhajan and for the first time we will be having dictation too. The competitions are held on stage as well as off stage for time management,” informs Dr Asha.
Explaining about the importance of exposure in different genres of the language, Dr Asha says, “This year, Alka Saraogi, a Indian Hindi novelist and short story writer, will be the chief guest. We invite different national level writers to interact with the students and this is a very good opportunity for them too to learn on how to write in Hindi.”
The Department of Hindi at St Xavier’s College, Mapusa, started since the inception of the college in 1963. The department is involved in various literary activities throughout the year like celebration of Premchand Jayanti, Hindi Diwas and organising talks, seminars, workshops, discussions on literary topics and conducting competitions for the students. Earlier in the week, they celebrated Hindi Diwas at the college. Ably guided by the Head of Department, Prof Magdalene D’Souza, a total of 105 students in the college took part in different competitions and students from other streams too were excited to be a part of the event. “We have been celebrating Hindi Diwas in the college for over 20 years. Students participated in competitions like monologue, original poetry recitation, duet singing competition, bhajan competition and portrait sketches of notes Indian Hindi writers,” says Prof Magdalene.
However, Prof Magdalena recently noticed the drop in the students at the third year course. “There is love and interest for the language but students opt for other subjects and drop Hindi at the Third year of college. Our students also take part in various state level and National level literary competitions. None of the Hindi students have remained unemployed as they are teaching in most of the colleges in Goa,” she adds.
The Department of Hindi (UG and PG) and Research Centre in Hindi of Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Sanquelim, Goa will be celebrating ‘Hindi Diwas’ on September 15 while six students and two members of the faculty will be participating in ‘Hindi Srijanotsav 2023’.
Prof Soniya Sirsat, Head, Department of Hindi (UG, PG, and Research Centre) took the initiative to start Hindi Honours Programme at BA level, MA in Hindi Programme at Post Graduate level along with PhD Hindi Programme in the college, after her transfer to Sanquelim in 2012. A short story writer herself with many books in Hindi to her credit, she is presently shouldering the responsibility as Vice Principal of the college as well. Government College, Sanquelim is the only college running MA Hindi and PhD Hindi Programme apart from Goa University.
“Five competitions were organised on September 6 in view of ‘Hindi Diwas’ namely sketch making on Hindi authors, rangoli based on Culture of the Hindi Belt, Hindi short story writing, Hindi Essay Writing and Hindi Poetry Writing. The certificates of the prize winners will be distributed on September 15 by the chief guest, the alumna of the Department of Hindi, Nilima Paryekar serving as Junior Hindi Translator for Directorate of Lighthouses and Lightships, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India and the Principal Prof Gervasio S F L Mendes, who will be presiding over the ceremony. A special lecture on ‘Hindi Bhasha Evam Sahitya : Rozagar Se Judi Sambhavanayen’ will be conducted by Nilima,” says Prof Soniya.
She further adds, “Presently, nine students are pursuing their doctoral studies under Research Centre in Hindi in Government College, Sanquelim which has established cluster with Government College, Quepem. The Alumni and Alumnae of Department of Hindi of Government College, Sanquelim are working at various positions like teachers in schools and higher secondary schools, assistant professors in colleges and translators at various places.”
Dr Asha Gahloth is also the Vice Principal and Head of Konkani Department at Government College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Khandola. She informs, “This is the only college in Goa that offers a Post Graduation Diploma in Translation (Hindi). The students have worked on several translations of poems and Children’s literature which is yet to be published. The students have to be fluent in not just Hindi but English and Konkani too. I have framed the syllabus which is approved by the Board of Studies (BOS) of Goa University.”
Prof Vrushali Mandrekar, a Hindi professor at the Shenoi Goembab School of Languages and Literature, Goa University, throws light on the various programmes held to inculcate the love for Hindi. Goa University will be celebrating Hindi Diwas today, September 14, with ‘Sapno ki Kavitayen’. “There will be a original poetry competition that will bring out the creativity of the students. At 4pm, Theatre Flamingo will present a Hindi play, ‘Jamun ka Ped’,” says Prof Vrushali.
Goa University also undertakes an annual field trip for Hindi students called Praman Yatra, which takes the students to different Indian states where Hindi originated. “In the past few years before the pandemic, we took the students to places like Banaras, Delhi and Varansi. They visited the houses of great Hindi writers and poets like Premchand and also visited libraries in different colleges and universities in those places,” she informs.
Students completing their higher education in Hindi have job prospects as writers, teachers, translators etc. They also have job opportunities in the fields of performing arts like theatre, television, cinema and journalism. They are not just restricted to the state of Goa but have been teaching in Karnataka and Kerala too.