Hindi got new life and acceptance due to Karpoori Thakur, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah highlights the promotion of Hindi by Karpoor Thakur and the importance of Indian languages in education.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday drew attention to the fact that the late socialist icon Karpoor Thakur had promoted Hindi in matriculation examination, after scrapping English as a compulsory subject, when he had been the Education Minister.

Hindi got a new life and acceptance only when Karpoori Thakur made the use of Hindi mandatory for all government work, he said.

Taking the spirit forward, the Minister said, Indian languages have been given prime importance in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Education Policy (NEP) and a new era has started as medical and technical education was also being imparted in Indian languages.

Mr. Shah added that it was due to Thakur’s decision regarding English that lakhs of students could pass the examinations.

“One of the things about Karpoori Thakur that impresses me the most was his acceptance for Hindi. It was Gandhi and Lohia’s principle that this country will get rid of colonialism only if it is administered in its own language. That principle was implemented on the ground by Jan Nayak (Thakur). And by removing English as a compulsory subject in matriculation, he gave an opportunity to thousands and lakhs of students from underprivileged and socially backward communities to clear the examination,” Mr. Shah said while addressing the 100th birth anniversary celebration of the socialist leader and former Bihar Chief Minister in Delhi.

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday announced that the government would posthumously confer upon Thakur the Bharat Ratna.

The Minister added that a decade before Mandal Commission report was implemented, Karpoori Thakur gave reservation to women, other backward classes and economically backward people from general category in Bihar.