Hindi Day (original) (raw)

Hindi Day (Hindi: हिन्दी दिवस, romanized: hindī divas) is celebrated in India to commemorate the date 14 September 1949 on which a compromise was reached—during the drafting of the Constitution of India—on the languages that were to have official status in the Republic of India. The compromise, usually called the Munshi-Ayyangar formula, after drafting committee members K. M. Munshi and N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, was voted by the Constituent Assembly of India after three years of debate between two opposing camps. The Hindi protagonists wanted Hindi to be the sole "national language" of India; the delegates from South India preferred English to have a place in the Constitution. The Munshi-Ayyangar formula declared (i) Hindi to be the "official language" of India's federal government; (ii) En