Fiji feels blessed and privileged to be the first country in the Pacific to host the World Hindi Conference. The Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, permanent secretary, Dr Anjeela Jokhan, made this comment last week while delivering her remarks in India at the launch of the logo and website for the 12th World Hindi Conference.
She said Fiji was honoured to have been nominated by the Government of India as next year’s host for the World Hindi Conference.
“This platform will provide us with a wonderful opportunity to promote and celebrate Hindi, one of our country’s main languages,” Dr Jokhan said.
“With a significant portion of our population having Indian heritage, we have worked together to ensure the protection and promotion of our languages, traditions, and culture.
“Culture and language are intertwined which is why Hindi is so important to Fijians who have Indian heritage.
“Fiji Hindi is enshrined in the Fijian Constitution, as one of our official languages, together with English and Vosa Vakaviti.
“The language was developed during the peak of the British Indentured Labour System, where over 60,000 Indians were brought to Fiji between 1879 and 1916 to work on the sugarcane and cotton plantations.”
The Minister for State for External Affairs Shri V Muraleedharan announced that India would further support Fiji in promoting Hindi in Fiji through a digital medium by having live online Hindi programs for Fiji.
He said they would also employ other appropriate strategies to bring the Hindi language to the people of Fiji through this platform.
Dr Jokhan said Fiji was looking forward to hosting the 12th World Hindi Conference in partnership with the Government of India as it would only further strengthen the bonds, not just between the two countries, but all the Hindispeaking countries across the world.
She emphasised that the partnership between the Governments of Fiji and India has strengthened over the last 52 years, and the people of Fiji have been deeply enriched through the bilateral interactions and engagements whose foundations have been based on our shared history, which is rooted in age-old ties of kinship and culture.
The 12th World Hindi Conference will be held at the Denarau Island Convention Centre in Nadi from February 15-17 in the coming year.
