Independence, in bringing its people to the national mainstream.
Jamir, 75, was conferred the ONE (Our North-East) India Award in Mumbai recently by My Home India, an NGO, for his excellent work in promoting nationalism in Nagaland.
Jamir’s inspiration behind learning and spreading of Hindi is Mahatma Gandhi. “Gandhiji would say that service to Hindi is service to the nation,” Jamir told DNA.
Jamir lives in the Podumpukhuri area of Dimapur district in Nagaland. His initiative to teach Hindi was not welcomed in the state initially. Braving all odds, he started a Hindi institute in Dimapur in 1980. Although few came to attend his classes at its inception, his institute saw the number bulging year after year. For the present session, he has 150 students.
“I started with my family members and later took Hindi to 18 tribes of Nagaland. I motivated them to learn the language,” said a proud Jamir.
Jamir took lessons inHindi for five years at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtria Hindi Vishwavidyalya in Wardha. He has a piece of advice for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray: “Everybody should know his mother tongue and should be proud of it. But he must know Hindi too because it is the main language of communication in the country. If everyone knows Hindi, India will remain united.”
Today, according to the teacher, almost everyone in Nagaland knows working Hindi. “The people have started watching Hindi movies too. Now they say that they should have learnt Hindi early. The change is taking place slowly. People are coming back to the national mainstream,” he said. Mumbai: In a state where creole language is the mode of communication among people, Piyongtemjen Jamir has spent more than 30 years spreading the Rashtrabhasha — Hindi. And he claims that he has played an important role in Nagaland, his home state which has seen the dark shadow of separatism since
Independence, in bringing its people to the national mainstream.
Jamir, 75, was conferred the ONE (Our North-East) India Award in Mumbai recently by My Home India, an NGO, for his excellent work in promoting nationalism in Nagaland.
Jamir’s inspiration behind learning and spreading of Hindi is Mahatma Gandhi. “Gandhiji would say that service to Hindi is service to the nation,” Jamir told DNA.
Jamir lives in the Podumpukhuri area of Dimapur district in Nagaland. His initiative to teach Hindi was not welcomed in the state initially. Braving all odds, he started a Hindi institute in Dimapur in 1980. Although few came to attend his classes at its inception, his institute saw the number bulging year after year. For the present session, he has 150 students.
“I started with my family members and later took Hindi to 18 tribes of Nagaland. I motivated them to learn the language,” said a proud Jamir.
Jamir took lessons inHindi for five years at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtria Hindi Vishwavidyalya in Wardha. He has a piece of advice for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray: “Everybody should know his mother tongue and should be proud of it. But he must know Hindi too because it is the main language of communication in the country. If everyone knows Hindi, India will remain united.”
Today, according to the teacher, almost everyone in Nagaland knows working Hindi. “The people have started watching Hindi movies too. Now they say that they should have learnt Hindi early. The change is taking place slowly. People are coming back to the national mainstream,” he said.
