Hindi a friend of all local languages: Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah said Hindi is a "friend" of all local languages and one cannot develop without another even though there have been efforts to create rift between the two for politics, adding that it is important to strengthen our languages if we want to preserve our culture and take it forward.

Shah was addressing the Akhil Bhartiya Raj Bhasha Sammelan in Varanasi, which also marked the first time the annual convention took place outside Delhi.

"Efforts are on to create conflict between Hindi and local languages for politics...even though I come from Gujarat and my mother tongue is Gujarati but I love Hindi as much and in fact slightly more than I love Gujarati," Shah said. "There is no conflict between Hindi and local languages. It is a friend of all local languages and can develop only when local languages develop and local languages will develop only when state language is strengthened across the country," he said.


Shah also exhorted the youth to feel a "sense of attachment" with their language and to never feel "ashamed" of using their language. Shah said it was important to shun the inferiority complex related to speaking Hindi from the minds of the youth that had been instilled from British rule and an environment needed to be created where people take pride in speaking their mother tongue. "I have been seeing from my childhood, that if a child did not know how to speak English, he would start suffering from an inferiority complex. Today I can say with surety that a time will come when one who does not know his language would feel the complex," he said.