Amit Shah stresses cultural nationalism, promotion of Indian languages at Rajbhasha event

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah shares a video message on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, in Mumbai on September 14, 2026 | Photo Credit: ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday (September 14, 2026) said cultural nationalism meant creating awareness about India's culture and history, asserting the country's diverse languages could have different voices but the national sentiment should remain one.

“All political differences must be set aside to promote Indian languages,” Mr. Shah said while asserting that a child can understand the country only through his or her mother tongue.

Mr. Shah linked the promotion of Indian languages to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledge of freeing the country from a "mindset of slavery".

Addressing the 6th All India Rajbhasha Sammelan, Mr. Shah said Bal Gangadhar Tilak had understood that awareness about the country's culture and history could be created through cultural nationalism.

“Tilak started public Ganesh festivities and celebrations of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's birth anniversary, both festivals eventually spreading beyond Maharashtra, helping create a wave of patriotism during the freedom struggle,” Mr. Shah said.

The Minister said 'Hindi Shabd Sindhu', which began with 51,000 words, had now grown to eight lakh words and expressed confidence that it would become the world's largest dictionary by 2029.

Mr. Shah said more than 50,000 words from Indian regional languages had been incorporated into 'Hindi Shabd Sindhu' to fill gaps where Hindi lacked words. He said the dictionary had accepted words from Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia etc, thereby making Hindi more flexible.

Mr. Shah said Maharashtra had the country's most multilingual culture, with Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Sindhi, Hindi, Kannada and Warli among the languages spoken and developed here.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accorded Marathi the status of a classical language.

Mr. Shah said Hindi should act as a means of communication and connection among India's languages rather than competition.

“Vinoba Bhave had said the use of Hindi had enabled him to take the message of the Bhoodan-Gramdan movement nationwide,” Mr. Shah added.

The Home Minister said his knowledge of Hindi had helped him work across the country when his party assigned him a national-level responsibility.