India celebrates September 15 as Hindi Day or Hindi Diwas every year. On this day in 1949, Hindi was adopted as one of the official languages by the Constituent Assembly.

Before that, in the 1925 Karachi session of the Indian National Congress, it was decided that Hindustani, which is a blend of Hindi and Urdu, would be the language of independent India. However, this decision was later modified with the establishment of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.

Hindi got its status as the official language due to the efforts of scholars like Seth Govind Das, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Kaka Kalelkar. One of the Hindi scholars, who advocated for Hindi’s official status, was Beohar Rajendra Simha, whose birthday also falls on September 14. 

Hindi is spoken by about 40% of Indian population. It is also the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. The language has several variants as well, like Awadh, Brij and Khadi Boli.

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Hindi Diwas is celebrated with much pomp and show across  schools and colleges of the country through poems, stories and several cultural programs. Interestingly, every year September 14 to September 21 is celebrated as Rajbhasha week.

The President presents the Rajbhasha awards to people who have worked towards the development and propagation of this language on this day.