Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed the 6th All India Rajbhasha Sammelan on Monday, September 14, 2026, emphasizing that cultural nationalism requires awareness of India’s history and culture while keeping a single national sentiment. He said political differences must be set aside to promote Indian languages and that a child can understand the country only through its mother tongue.
Shah linked the promotion of Indian languages to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to free the country from a “mindset of slavery.” He highlighted the growth of the “Hindi Shabd Sindhu” dictionary, which now contains eight lakh words, including more than 50,000 entries from regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Odia. He noted that the dictionary aims to become the world’s largest by 2029.
The minister also spoke of Maharashtra’s multilingual heritage, listing Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Sindhi, Hindi, Kannada and Warli as spoken there, and mentioned that Modi had accorded Marathi classical language status. He urged Hindi to serve as a bridge among India’s languages, citing Vinoba Bhave’s use of Hindi to spread the Bhoodan‑Gramdan movement.
Shah outlined Rajbhasha initiatives, including the multilingual translation tool ‘Bharati’, the ‘Bharatiya Bhasha Anubhag’ platform, and language training for over five lakh central government employees. He announced that exams such as the IAS, IPS, JEE, NEET and undergraduate tests would be offered in 13 languages, and that the National Education Policy makes mother‑tongue instruction mandatory.
He concluded by stressing the significance of “Vande Mataram,” describing it as a catalyst for Indian consciousness and cultural nationalism. He noted that the song’s full glory was restored only after the appointment of a Prime Minister who could speak Hindi and other Indian languages on the international stage, and he compared India’s diverse languages to the many petals of a lotus, each contributing to a single, united voice.
