The three-day Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan is being held in the national capital after a gap of 71 years and a year after Marathi was granted the classical language status.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, while addressing the inaugural function of the 98th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan – an event being held in Delhi in the 350th year of the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji and the centenary celebrations of the RSS, said lakhs of people, including him got the inspiration to live for the country from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“We take pride in the fact that in the great land of Maharashtra, a remarkable Marathi-speaking individual planted the seeds of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 100 years ago. Today, we celebrate its centenary. The organisation has grown and flourished like a banyan tree,” he said.
He said the RSS has inspired lakhs of people like himself to live for the country and it is because of the Sangh that he got the privilege of connecting with the Marathi language and Marathi traditions.
For the last 100 years, the RSS has been running a Sanskar Yagya to take India’s great tradition and culture to the new generation, the PM asserted.
Keep away from attempts to create divisions on basis of language: PM
He said there has never been any animosity among Indian languages and each has enriched the other, giving a fitting reply to attempts to discriminate on the basis of linguistics.
PM Modi hailed Marathi as a complete language reflecting the elements of bravery and courage, beauty, sensitivity and equality.
“There has never been any animosity among Indian languages. Languages have always influenced and enriched each other,” PM Modi said.
He said often, when efforts were made to create divisions based on languages, India’s shared linguistic heritage gave a fitting reply.
“It is our social responsibility to distance ourselves from these misconceptions and embrace and enrich all languages,” the prime minister highlighted.
His remarks came on a day when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin reiterated his remarks that the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) is an attempt to impose a three-language formula throughout the country.
(With PTI inputs)
