Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addresses the inaugural session of Hindi Diwas 2026 and the 6th All India Official Language Conference in Mumbai on Monday, 14 September 2026, a two-day programme at which the Rajbhasha Gaurav and Rajbhasha Kirti awards for 2025-26 will be presented.
The Department of Official Language of the Ministry of Home Affairs has held these conferences annually since 2021, and the series has travelled Varanasi, Surat, Pune, New Delhi and Gandhinagar, reaching Navi Mumbai this year. A special attraction in 2026 is a dedicated discussion session on the National Song, Vande Mataram, with a commemorative issue of the Department's journal Rajbhasha Bharati centred on it.
The date is the exam question
Hindi Diwas falls on 14 September because the Constituent Assembly, on 14 September 1949, adopted Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Union. That single sentence answers most questions on the subject. The observance itself began in 1953.
What the Assembly did not do is equally important and far more often got wrong. It did not declare a national language. The Constitution nowhere uses that expression. Hindi is the official language of the Union — the language of the Union government's own business — which is a narrower thing altogether. India has no national language; it has official languages of the Union, official languages of the States, and a list of recognised languages in a Schedule. Any candidate who says "Hindi is our national language" in an interview has handed the board an easy correction.
The language Articles, in order
Part XVII of the Constitution, Articles 343 to 351, is compact and highly examinable. Learn it as a sequence rather than as isolated numbers.
| Article | What it provides |
|---|---|
| 343 | Official language of the Union — Hindi in Devanagari script, with the international form of Indian numerals; English to continue for 15 years from commencement, and Parliament may by law provide for its continued use thereafter |
| 344 | Official Language Commission and a Committee of Parliament on official language |
| 345 | Official language or languages of a State |
| 346 | Language for communication between States, and between a State and the Union |
| 347 | Special provision for a language spoken by a section of the population of a State |
| 348 | Language of the Supreme Court and High Courts, and of Acts, Bills, rules and orders — English |
| 349 | Special procedure for enacting certain laws relating to language |
| 350 | Language for representations for redress of grievances; 350A — instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage; 350B — Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities |
| 351 | Directive for the development of the Hindi language |
Three of these repay a second look.
Article 343 and the fifteen years. The Constitution commenced on 26 January 1950, so the fifteen-year window for English expired on 26 January 1965 — and that date produced the most serious language crisis of independent India. Anti-Hindi agitations, most intensely in Tamil Nadu, followed the prospect of Hindi becoming the sole official language. The political settlement that emerged was not a constitutional amendment but a statute and its amendment, which is the next point.
The Official Languages Act, 1963. Enacted under the authority Article 343 itself grants Parliament, it provides for the continued use of English alongside Hindi for the official purposes of the Union and for business in Parliament. Amended in 1967 after the agitations, it secured English's position indefinitely — the arrangement usually described as virtual bilingualism, under which a State may correspond with the Union in English and no State can be compelled to use Hindi. The Official Languages Rules, 1976, classify States and Union Territories into Regions A, B and C according to the prevalence of Hindi, and set correspondence targets accordingly.
Article 348 and the courts. The language of the Supreme Court and of every High Court is English, and so is the authoritative text of Central and State legislation. A Governor may, with the President's previous consent, authorise Hindi or another State language in the High Court of that State, but judgments, decrees and orders remain in English unless Parliament provides otherwise. Candidates revising the judiciary should be able to state that rule cleanly, because it is a favourite pairing — the language chapter tested through a court question.
The Eighth Schedule is a separate list
The other common confusion is between official languages and the Eighth Schedule. They are different instruments doing different jobs.
The Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages. Inclusion does not make a language official anywhere; its principal constitutional consequence flows through Article 351, which directs that Hindi be developed by drawing on the forms and expressions of Hindustani and of the languages in the Eighth Schedule, and through Article 344, since the Official Language Commission is constituted with representation for those languages. In practice, inclusion also carries administrative weight — recruitment examinations, Sahitya Akademi recognition, and so on.
The list grew by amendment, and the amendment numbers are standard fare:
- Originally 14 languages.
- Sindhi added by the 21st Amendment, 1967.
- Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali added by the 71st Amendment, 1992.
- Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali added by the 92nd Amendment, 2003, taking the total to 22.
Aspirants working through the Schedules and special provisions should be able to reel off those four amendment numbers, because a four-option question built on them is nearly free marks.
Vande Mataram, precisely
The 2026 conference gives Vande Mataram a dedicated session, with Shri Joydeep Chattopadhyay, a fifth-generation descendant of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, present, alongside playback singer Shri Hariharan, writers Shri Nilesh Mishra and Shri Akhilesh Mishra, and researcher Shri Milind Prabhakar Sabnis.
The factual spine to carry:
- Composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875, and later included in his novel Anandamath (1882). The 150-year mark falls in this period, which is why the commemoration is happening now.
- First sung at the 1896 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, by Rabindranath Tagore.
- It became a mobilising song of the national movement, particularly during the Swadeshi movement after the 1905 partition of Bengal.
- It is the National Song. On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly's President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, made a statement giving Vande Mataram equal status of honour with the National Anthem — the same sitting at which Jana Gana Mana, by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted as the National Anthem.
- Keep the two songs' first performances apart: Jana Gana Mana was first sung at the 27 December 1911 Calcutta session of the Congress; Vande Mataram in 1896.
Students revising the early national movement should be able to place the song in the Swadeshi years rather than treating it as a purely literary artefact — its political life is what the exam asks about.
The machinery that implements all this
The conference's working sessions point at the administrative layer, which candidates usually skip and which makes for a distinguishing answer.
The Department of Official Language sits under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Committee of Parliament on Official Language, constituted under Section 4 of the Official Languages Act, 1963, reviews progress in the use of Hindi for official purposes and reports to the President. At the local level, Town Official Language Implementation Committees — TOLICs, or Nagar Rajbhasha Karyanvayan Samitis (NARAKAS) — coordinate implementation among central offices, banks and undertakings in a given town, and the 2026 conference holds a special session on their role. The awards being presented, Rajbhasha Gaurav and Rajbhasha Kirti, recognise individuals and institutions respectively for work in the field.
The conference also launches several publications alongside the Vande Mataram issue of Rajbhasha Bharati: Bharatiya Gyan Tantra: Srot aur Swaroop, Shiv Anadi Hain, Anant Hain, and Andheron Se Ujalon Tak, a compilation of writings by prison inmates. An exhibition of 32 stalls by institutions, banks and ministries runs at the venue, and the programme is framed around Hindi's relationship with Maharashtra's own linguistic and literary traditions — the standing official position being that the object is coordination among all Indian languages together with Hindi, not substitution.
🔑 Revision block
The event. Hindi Diwas 2026 and the 6th All India Official Language Conference, Mumbai, inaugural session 14 September 2026, addressed by Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah. Two days. Rajbhasha Gaurav and Rajbhasha Kirti awards for 2025-26 presented.
The series. Held annually since 2021 by the Department of Official Language, MHA — Varanasi, Surat, Pune, New Delhi, Gandhinagar, and Navi Mumbai in 2026.
Why 14 September. The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi in Devanagari script as the official language of the Union on 14 September 1949. Observance began 1953.
The critical distinction. Hindi is an official language of the Union under Article 343 — not a national language. The Constitution uses no such term.
Part XVII, Articles 343-351. 343 official language of the Union, 15 years for English · 344 Commission and Committee · 345 State official language · 346 inter-State communication · 347 language of a section of a State's population · 348 Supreme Court, High Courts and legislation in English · 349 special enactment procedure · 350 grievance representations, 350A mother-tongue instruction, 350B Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities · 351 directive for Hindi's development.
The 1965 flashpoint. The 15-year window expired 26 January 1965; anti-Hindi agitations followed. Settled by the Official Languages Act, 1963 as amended in 1967 — English continues indefinitely, "virtual bilingualism". Official Languages Rules, 1976 classify Regions A, B and C.
Eighth Schedule. 22 languages. Originally 14 · Sindhi by the 21st Amendment, 1967 · Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali by the 71st, 1992 · Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santhali by the 92nd, 2003.
Vande Mataram. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, 1875; in Anandamath, 1882; first sung at the 1896 Calcutta Congress session by Rabindranath Tagore; National Song, given equal status of honour by Dr Rajendra Prasad's statement of 24 January 1950 — the day Jana Gana Mana was adopted as National Anthem.
Machinery. Department of Official Language under MHA · Committee of Parliament on Official Language under Section 4 of the 1963 Act · TOLICs / NARAKAS at town level.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Hindi Diwas is observed on 14 September because on that date in 1949: (a) The Official Languages Act was passed (b) The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi in Devanagari script as the official language of the Union (c) The Eighth Schedule was finalised (d) Vande Mataram was adopted as the National Song → (b).
Q2. The official language of the Union is provided for in: (a) Article 341 (b) Article 343 (c) Article 345 (d) Article 351 → (b).
Q3. Under Article 348, the language of the Supreme Court and the High Courts is: (a) Hindi (b) English (c) Hindi or English at the litigant's option (d) The official language of the State concerned → (b).
Q4. The Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities is provided for under: (a) Article 344 (b) Article 347 (c) Article 350A (d) Article 350B → (d).
Q5. How many languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule? (a) 18 (b) 20 (c) 22 (d) 24 → (c).
Q6. Sindhi was added to the Eighth Schedule by the: (a) 7th Amendment (b) 21st Amendment (c) 71st Amendment (d) 92nd Amendment → (b) — in 1967.
Q7. Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added to the Eighth Schedule by the: (a) 71st Amendment (b) 86th Amendment (c) 92nd Amendment (d) 100th Amendment → (c) — in 2003.
Q8. The fifteen-year period for the continued use of English under Article 343 expired on: (a) 26 November 1964 (b) 26 January 1965 (c) 15 August 1965 (d) 26 January 1970 → (b).
Q9. Vande Mataram was first sung at a session of the Indian National Congress in: (a) 1885 (b) 1896 (c) 1905 (d) 1911 → (b) — at Calcutta, by Rabindranath Tagore.
Q10. Vande Mataram appears in which literary work? (a) Gitanjali (b) Anandamath (c) Durgeshnandini (d) Kapalkundala → (b) — Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of 1882.
Q11. The Department of Official Language functions under which Ministry? (a) Education (b) Culture (c) Home Affairs (d) Information and Broadcasting → (c).
Q12. Consider the following: 1. The Constitution of India declares Hindi to be the national language. 2. Article 351 contains a directive for the development of the Hindi language. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both (d) Neither → (b) — the Constitution designates official languages, never a national language.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Language-and-Constitution items in CDS and OTA papers take four shapes, and they recur almost every cycle. The official-versus-national item is the most common of all: a statement asserting Hindi is the national language, to be marked false. The Article-number item pairs a provision with its number, rotating 343, 348, 350A, 350B and 351 — the trap being to swap 350A (mother-tongue instruction) with 350B (Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities). The Eighth Schedule item asks the total, or which amendment added which language, where the four amendment numbers 21, 71 and 92 are the whole answer. The national-symbols item asks who wrote which song, where it was first sung, and when each was adopted, mixing Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana against each other.
The fresh 2026 hook is the 6th All India Official Language Conference and the Vande Mataram commemoration, most likely as a statement pair on the significance of 14 September 1949 and the official-language status of Hindi. We describe the recurring pattern here, not any exact past question.
Preparing for CDS or OTA? The language Articles are among the highest-yield pages in the polity syllabus — finite, dated and repeatedly examined. Build the base with our CDS/OTA polity hub, follow the daily CDS/OTA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Aditya Tiwari — Polity & current affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Home Affairs, 13 September 2026. The constitutional Articles, Official Languages Act and Rules, Eighth Schedule amendment history and the Vande Mataram chronology cross-verified with the bare Constitution and independent sources.