Jodhpur: Emphasising the need to encourage ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Swabhasha’, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday urged people to make and use local products and converse in their mother tongue at home.
Shah said that language is key to preserving any society, culture and religion. While any language can be learnt or spoken as required to progress in the world, only Hindi and local languages must be used for conversation with children at home, as it will help strengthen their connection with their roots, he stressed.
The minister was addressing the Maheshwari Global Convention at Jodhpur, where members from the Maheshwari community have converged from various parts of the country and abroad.
“If you talk in your language with the children at home, they will be automatically connected to their history, to their state of Rajasthan…. It is the language only which keeps the society alive, religion alive and takes the culture forward,” said Shah.
“Speak in any language as is needed at other places, even if it is a foreign language, but speak only in the mother tongue with children at home,” the minister said.
Emphasising the need to work towards ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, Shah termed Swadeshi as the only mantra to attain the goal in order to make India a leading nation in every field by 2047.
“If we have to reach the top, ‘aatmanirbhar’ is the only option and to make it successful, the only mantra is ‘Swadeshi’,” said Shah, calling upon businesses to venture into manufacturing at least one product which is not being made in country yet, along with what they have already been producing, in order to make ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
Recognising the role of the community, the minister said that right from the era of the freedom struggle to the developing and evolving India post-independence, the Maheshwari community has played a crucial role.
“They have a very big role in the cultural renaissance of the country,” said Shah.
Terming such conventions of communities a binding force for the country, Shah said that they “strengthen the nation, not divide them”.
“Our communities never divided the country. This does not symbolise narrowness, but unity and power. Unity is important not only for the community but for the nation as well,” he said.
“If every community takes care of its poor, the entire country’s poor will be taken care of. If every community becomes independent, the entire nation becomes independent,” he said.
On the occasion, Shah also released a stamp recognising the contribution of the Maheshwari community in the development of the country.
