The Hindi language is a symbol of the girmit era.
And the Indian High Commissioner to Fiji, Padmaja, believes the girmitiya who came from all over India were united through the Hindi language.
She made the comments while speaking at the Hindi Diwas celebration at the University of Fiji on Friday.
“For the girmitiya, language and religion remained with them and you can find them in the most purest form today here in Fiji,” she said.
Ms Padmaja said the Hindi language allowed for the formation of new words and its usage. “This is good because this language doesn’t remain static.
We can get words from other languages and assimilate its usage into Hindi and the language keeps evolving and won’t die.”
She said she was pleased to see that Hindi was recognised as one of the three official languages in Fiji.
She announced the government of India would host the 12th World Hindi Conference in Fiji in 2021.
