World Hindi Conference is expected to be held in Fiji this year. Indian High Commissioner to Fiji Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan said they were having discussions on the dates with the Fijian Government and expect to get the confirmation soon.
“The World Hindi Conference was the initiative of the government of India which started in 1975 to promote the usage of Hindi language which is one of the oldest and widest used languages in the world,” Mr Karthigeyan said.
“So far 11 World Hindi Conferences are held, the last one was held in Mauritius in 2018.
“During the conference in Mauritius, it was decided that based on the usage of Hindi in Fiji and its history and heritage here, they will host the next Hindi conference in Fiji.
“And accordingly in 2020, we got the principle approval of the Government of Fiji to host the event in Fiji obviously without any financial implications to them.”
Mr Karthigeyan said the conference would be held completely on the cost of the government of India.
“So it will be done completely on the cost of the government of India, but Fiji will be our co-host and would do the necessary arrangements at this end in cooperation with Indian High Commission which will be spearheading the preparations for the meet.
“Because of the pandemic and because of the closure of boarders for 18 months, obviously the plan for the World Hindi Conference 2021 was postponed.
“Perhaps we might get a chance to do it this year.
“We are discussing the dates with the Fijian Government and we expect to have a confirmation soon on the dates.”
Mr Karthigeyan said Fiji would be expecting participants from all around the world where Hindi was spoken.
“Hindi scholars from leading institutions, academics, researchers, poets and of course the big delegates that go from India to the World Hindi Conference.
“The World Hindi Secretariat is located in Mauritius, so they would also be coming from there.
“There is a lot of interest in the friends of India and friends of Indian culture and heritage to know more about this language and discuss the way forward how to strengthen the usage of Hindi language in the coming years.
“So based on this, we expect a lot of delegates to come to Fiji from around the world to attend this World Hindi Conference.
“In the last World Hindi Conference in Mauritius, there were like 1300 delegates from around the world.
“This year obviously because of the pandemic impact and limited travel restrictions and travel options, perhaps the numbers could be slightly less, but we expect around 1,000 people including around 200 from Fiji.”
