Mother tongue key to a child's complete development: Amit Shah

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said 'Vande Mataram' is not an ordinary song. "It was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's great effort to awaken Indian consciousness during a period of intense colonial subjugation. Through his poetry, he sought to shake the sleeping consciousness of India," he said while speaking at 'Hindi Diwas 2026' and the 6th All India Official Language Conference in Mumbai.

"Vande Mataram written in 'Anandamath', soon became a declaration of freedom throughout India. Unfortunately, 'Vande Mataram' was later divided into parts. Even after Independence, it took Parliament nearly 80 years to accept it in its complete form. PM Modi is the leader who took the initiative to have 'Vande Mataram' sung again at official functions in its complete form and with full glory," he said.

Shah said the Hindi Diwas programme being held in the land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj during the 150th year of 'Vande Mataram' would take forward the journey of the official language and Indian languages in the coming days.


The Department of Official Language has achieved numerous milestones, he said. One of the biggest initiatives was undertaken through the National Education Policy (NEP). PM has made learning one's mother tongue in primary education mandatory. No child can grow into a complete individual without learning his or her mother tongue because the affection of a mother and the love of a sister or brother cannot be fully understood without one's mother tongue, he said.

Shah said process of thinking in a child begins in the mother tongue. Therefore, he urged everyone to set aside political differences and focus on promoting Indian languages. Whether it is JEE, NEET or an undergraduate entrance examination, these examinations are now conducted in 13 languages.

Shah said those who oppose the learning of Indian languages do not realise how serious a mistake they are making. Children should learn Indian languages. Learning a second Indian language means that a child will automatically become connected with the goal of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat'. Along with learning their mother tongue, if children learn another Indian language, they will automatically connect with their Indian identity and, will be freed from narrow-minded thinking, and become true citizens committed to India. He said the government wants to enrich every language of India.

He said that whenever PM Modi has travelled to a major global platform and delivered a speech, he has spoken in the official language. AI-based 'Kanthasth 2.0' platform has been opened to foreigners as well, with more than 50 million sentences.

Shah said the 'Hindi Shabd-Sindhu' dictionary, which began with 51,000 words, has now grown to 800,000 words. He expressed confidence that by 2029, this dictionary would become the world's largest dictionary. He said that wherever there were gaps in Hindi and no word existed for a particular concept, more than 50,000 words from local languages were adopted to make the official language more flexible. These include Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Odia and other languages.

He said the government wants to make Indian languages of governance and science, enrich literature, and connect Indian languages with one another to create a vast collective linguistic resource.