Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday, 14 September praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to Indian languages, saying that hearing the Prime Minister address global forums in Hindi fills the nation with pride. Fadnavis was speaking at the Hindi Diwas celebration and the 6th All India Official Language Conference held in Navi Mumbai, an event also addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

CM Fadnavis on Language Policy and Modi's Legacy

After apologising for his late arrival, Fadnavis underscored the significance of hosting the national convention in Maharashtra. He noted that such conferences were once treated as mere formalities, but Home Minister Shah had spearheaded the effort to rotate them across different states — giving each region a stake in the national language discourse.

Reflecting on history, Fadnavis pointed out that Hindi was widely used for official work even during the British era, before both Hindi and English were formally designated as official languages in 1963. He argued that since Prime Minister Modi assumed office, mother tongues and official regional languages have received 'unprecedented respect' across the country.

'You must learn your mother tongue, and the New Education Policy (NEP) ensures this by promoting education in local languages alongside additional Indian languages,' Fadnavis told the gathering.

He also recalled that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then an opposition leader, was among the first to address the United Nations in Hindi — and credited writer Munshi Premchand with making conversational Hindi acceptable for official use.

Amit Shah: Marathi Deserves Deep Respect, Maharashtra Most Multilingual

Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing the conference, emphasised the importance of regional languages and asserted that Marathi deserves deep respect. He highlighted that the Modi administration had granted classical language status to Marathi — a long-pending demand of the state.

Shah described Maharashtra as the most multilingual state in India, calling its linguistic diversity a national asset. He invoked the words of freedom fighter and social reformer Vinoba Bhave: 'If I had not used Hindi, I could not have reached every village in Kashmir, Assam, and Kerala with the revolutionary message of Bhoodan and Gramdan. It was the official language that enabled me to communicate with people across the nation.'

Veer Savarkar's Linguistic Legacy Invoked

Describing Maharashtra as the land of Veer Savarkar, Shah underscored that Savarkar was not only a freedom fighter and social reformer but also one of the most learned linguists of his era. He built upon Lokmanya Tilak's call for the purification of Marathi, coining numerous words that had previously been absent in Indian languages — words that found natural acceptance in Marathi and other national languages.

Shah added that the Ministry of Home Affairs has honoured Savarkar's linguistic legacy in Hindi through the 'Shabd Sindhu' initiative, which seeks to document and preserve his lexical contributions.

NEP and Mother-Tongue Education at the Centre

Both leaders reiterated the central government's focus on language preservation through the New Education Policy (NEP). Shah emphasised that foundational learning in one's mother tongue is essential for a child's holistic growth — a principle now embedded in India's national curriculum framework. The conference, bringing together officials from across the country, is expected to produce actionable recommendations on promoting official languages in governance and education.