Johannesburg, South Africa:
A Hindi literary symposium, organised as a major attraction at the 'Festival of India' in South Africa featuring top Indian poets and writers, has garnered rave reviews from various quarters.
The festival that celebrates 20 years of India-South Africa diplomatic relations and 20 years of democracy in South Africa was organised by the High Commission of India in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Culture and the South African Department of Arts and Culture.
"The co-operation between the Indian and South African governments not only in this venture but also the first World Hindi Conference in the African continent last year has affirmed Hindi as an important language in the country," said Hindi Shiksha Sangh of South Africa (HSSSA) President Malthie Ramballi.
HSSSA, a body promoting the language locally for decades, praised the stalwarts and teachers who have carried the flag of Hindi from the day the first Indian indentured labourers landed in South Africa in 1860.
"These people tied a knot of Hindu culture and their languages around them when they left the shores of India in search of better opportunities," Ramballi said.
A Sahitya Academy-sponsored eight-member team of Indian poets and writers, led by celebrated Hindi satirist Ashok Chakradhar, took part in the symposium.
Naresh Chandra Saxena, Om Kumar Mishra, Prem Shankar Shukla, Bhagwan Singh, Rewati Raman Prasad, Shiv Narayan Singh and Prem Kundra were the other members of the Indian team who enthralled the audiences with their poetry and wit dwelling upon the cultural thread binding India and South Africa.
The poets also reflected on the socio-economic changes sweeping the globalised world and how Hindi as a leading language of the world was making an attempt to move forward.
"The role of language as an expression of culture and as a medium to understand its ethos is of vital importance,"? Indian High Commissioner to South Africa Virendra Gupta said at the inauguration of the gathering.
Heeralall Sewnath and Virjanand Garrib, joint coordinators of the HSSSA provincial branch, expressed their gratitude to the Ministry of External Affairs in India for having created opportunities in South Africa for popularising Hindi.
"The involvement of the High Commission of India in Pretoria is immeasurable for their enlightening contribution in assisting and promoting Hindi in the country," said Sewnath.
The symposium ended with the first-ever Kavi Sammelan in Johannesburg on Thursday after several round of workshops in Durban with local Hindi writers, poets and teachers.