Tashkent: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that importance of Hindi was set to increase with India marching rapidly towards economic prosperity.
In an address to indologists, Hindi language students and Indian community members in Tashkent, Mr. Modi also referred to growing conflicts and said he liked Uzbek President Islam Karimov's view that music could be the best means to stay away from violence.
Mr. Modi said people-to-people contact was foundation for relations between any countries where language and culture also play important role.
The Prime Minister also released the first Uzbek-Hindi dictionary along with his Uzbek counterpart and Indologist Rakhmatov.
“Those (countries) whose economy is strong, wings of their language grow faster as people want to learn their language,” the Prime Minister said.
In this context, he said importance of Hindi language was going to increase as India was on course of economic advancement.
“A language imbibes the feel of the era and tradition through which it travels. Languages have big heart. Language is key to the development of personality,” said Mr. Modi.
“Indian movies, language & music are very popular in Uzbekistan. In 2012, Uzbek radio completed 50 years of Hindi broadcasting,” he tweeted.
Mr. Modi and Mr. Karimov also discussed ways to enhance strategic, economic and energy ties apart from reviewing key regional issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described Lal Bahadur Shastri as a proud son of India, as he paid glowing tribute to the former premier who died here following a heart attack in 1966.
