New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Hindi Diwas 2026 said the growth of Hindi should go hand in hand with the dignity, promotion and protection of India's other languages, describing the country's linguistic diversity as a source of strength rather than weakness.

In his message marking Hindi Diwas, Shah said India's many languages carry their own histories, folk traditions and ways of understanding life. He argued that protecting this diversity is essential to preserving the country's cultural identity and its idea of unity in diversity.

“India has so many languages, and that is our greatest strength,” Shah said, rejecting the view that linguistic diversity is a weakness.

Amit Shah: Hindi should connect, not compete

Shah said Hindi has historically served as a language through which people from different regions and communities could communicate and build connections. He stressed that its progress should not come at the expense of other Indian languages.

According to Shah, Hindi should be seen as a link among India's different languages and as a means of strengthening national unity, rather than as a representation of any single linguistic community.

He pointed to his own background to illustrate the point. Shah said Gujarati is his mother tongue, but Hindi allows him to communicate directly with people across different parts of the country.

Shah also cited several historical figures whose mother tongues were not Hindi but who contributed to the language's wider reach.

He referred to Swami Dayanand Saraswati, whose mother tongue was Gujarati but who wrote Satyarth Prakash in Hindi. He also mentioned Mahatma Gandhi's establishment of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras in 1918.

Shah cited Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as another example, saying the Bengali-speaking freedom fighter used Hindi as a language of communication for the Azad Hind Fauj and gave the nation the slogan “Jai Hind”.

He said the contributions of people from different linguistic backgrounds helped Hindi become a language of mass communication.

Language is more than communication, Shah says

Shah described language as more than a tool for everyday communication, calling it the “memory” and “self-awareness” of a society.

He said every Indian language carries cultural knowledge that can help shape the values of younger generations. He also urged young people to learn from the wider world while remaining connected to their own languages.

The Home Minister appealed to parents to speak to their children in their mother tongue, saying language connects people with their mother, their soil, history and culture.

Why is Hindi Diwas celebrated on September 14?

Hindi Diwas is observed every year on September 14 to mark the day the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as an official language in 1949.

Shah's message comes with the annual observance centred on Hindi's role in India's public and cultural life, while also placing emphasis on the country's wider linguistic heritage.

His central message was that the expansion of Hindi and the preservation of India's other languages need not be opposing goals: Hindi can serve as a bridge between linguistic communities while India's regional and mother tongues retain their dignity and identity.

With agency inputs