Hindi

History of Hindi in Singapore

In January 89, the North Indian Hindu Association invited the Arya Samaj, the Shree Lakshmi Narayan Temple and certain individuals to form a Pro-tem Hindi Committee to look into the study of Hindi. Mr Sivakant Tiwari was elected as Chairman of the Pro-tem committee. Later representatives of the Singapore Gujarati Society, the Singapore Sindhi Merchants Association and the Singapore Bengali Association were also invited to join the Pro-tem Hindi Committee.

The Pro-tem committee met for the first time on 4th February 1989 and began an examination of the various facets of the matter e.g. the number of students likely to study Hindi, how to attract such students, information on the Hindi speaking population, the logistics of organisation of classes availability of facilities, finance the question of representations to the Ministry of Education etc. Sub-groups were set up to look into these issues.

Mr. Sivakant Tiwari met the Minister for Education, Dr. Tony Tan on 4th of October 1989 to make representations. The representations were intended to put on record the problems faced by Hindi speaking students and to request for the recognition of Hindi as a second language.

On the issue of recognition, Mr Tiwari met the then Minister for Education, Dr. Tony Tan. He discussed the issue with Dr. Tan and handed over a memorandum to the Minister who told Mr Tiwar that the ministry would reconsider the request sympathetically. However, if the recognition came about the community would have to organise and manage the Hindi language classes as the ministry did not have the expertise to manage the teaching of Hindi.

On 6th October 1989, the Minister for Education made an announcement in Parliament that five Minority Indian languages would be allowed to be offered as a second language in Secondary schools up to the ‘O’ level Examinations i.e. Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi  and Urdu. Howell the students would have to make arrangements for their own teachers though the Ministry would provide premises for lessons.

The Hindi Society (Singapore)

• In the interest of the students, it was necessary that the Hindi classes be institutionalized and be run on a continuous basis. Hence, a Constitution was prepared and application for the setting up of a Hindi Society to run the classes was submitted. On 4th Aug 1990, the Registrar of Societies granted approval for the registration of the Hindi Society {Singapore).

Hindi Centre

• The first Hindi classes, organised by the Pro-Tem Hindi Committee, started at Beng Wan Primary School on 29 January 1991 with the commencement of the two Hindi classes. They were devoted primarily to the teaching of Hindi at secondary level. The running of Hindi classes at Beng Wan Primary School was part of the self-help that the Hindi speaking community embarked upon to enable pupils to study Hindi.

Students and classes

Two secondary classes were formed in January 1990. By April 1990 there were 4 Hindi secondary classes catering to the needs of about 100 students in Secondary and Pre-U classes.

Hindi primary classes began in August 1990 with 5 classes.

One hundred and eleven students had registered for the Hindi primary classes. Three classes were organised for them and the classes commenced on 5th Aug 1990..

The secondary classes were initially held on Sundays between 9 am to 12 noon. These classes were continued during the school holidays to enable the secondary students to improve their knowledge of Hindi. Additional classes were held for students in Secondary III and IV as they had a shorter time before they sit for their ‘0’ level Hindi Examinations.

The Hindi Primary classes were held from 9 to 11 am on Sundays.