Former Deputy Prime Minister and National Federation Party (NFP) leader Prof. Biman Prasad has called for formal Hindi and i-Taukei (Vosa Vakaviti) to be made compulsory subjects up to Year 8 in Fiji’s primary schools, criticising Opposition MP Faiyaz Koya for promoting Fiji Hindi instead.
Prof. Prasad described Koya’s stance as “not only insulting but a clear attempt to degrade the formal language of Indo-Fijians.”
He said all primary school students should have the option to choose one of the languages as a vernacular subject, adding that many i-Taukei students are eager to learn formal Hindi, while some Indo-Fijian and other students would prefer studying either major community language in Fiji.
“At the same time, institutions governed by religious and cultural organisations such as TISI Sangam, Fiji Muslim League, the Chinese and the Gujarati communities must be free, with government support, to hire language teachers to teach Tamil, Urdu, Mandarin and Gujarati to students wanting to learn their mother tongue apart from either formal Hindi or i-Taukei,” he said.
Prof. Prasad framed the move as a way to promote understanding across Fiji’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities.
“This is the ideal and most logical way to start a national wave of understanding each other’s language, culture, tradition and custom, and the best platform to inculcate genuine unity in our nation.”
Responding to Koya’s remarks regarding the teaching of Sanskrit Hindi over Fiji Hindi in schools, Prof. Prasad argued that the Opposition MP was attempting to dilute Indo-Fijian culture. “Hindi scriptures are in formal Hindi and not Fiji Hindi. His insistence on promoting Fiji Hindi and the 2013 Constitution’s guidance that conversational Hindi and i-Taukei be taught as compulsory subjects in all primary schools is totally unacceptable,” he said.
Prof. Prasad emphasised that supporting Fiji Hindi is not the issue, but said it should not replace formal Hindi.
“No one is against Fiji or conversational Hindi. It comes out of the teaching of formal Hindi. But Fiji Hindi is not a vernacular language on its own.”
Highlighting recent government actions, Professor Prasad noted, “Just two months after coming into power, the coalition government hosted the World Hindi Conference in February 2023, cementing our commitment towards formal Hindi and i-Taukei as major languages apart from English. We amended the Standing Orders of Parliament, and now MPs in both Government and Opposition can debate in either i-Taukei or formal Hindi. Even Mr Koya’s colleagues in Opposition are now speaking formal Hindi in Parliament.”
He concluded with a firm warning: “We will not allow Koya, his colleagues from a debt-ridden and now deregistered and dead political party, or anyone else from diluting formal Hindi as an official language.”
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