Hindi, as with many South Asian languages, can trace its origins to Sanskrit, and is a distant relative from Urdu. Currently, Hindi is spoken as a majority language in northern India, with it being the official language of the country.

The primary educational institutions for Hindi include the Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) Hindi School, as well as the Hindi School.

Timeline

1819 → The British founding of the settlement of Singapore brought with them Hindi speakers in terms of the Indian troops who hailed from Hindi-speaking regions of India (Rai 2016).

1867 → Usage of Hindi declined in Singapore due to the separation of the Straits Settlements from British India.

1930 → Arya Samaj (Singapore), a Hindu religious institution in Singapore, began the first Hindi classes in Singapore. This would be further continued beyond the 1930s in the form of their education affiliate, the Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) Hindi School (Rai 2016).

1966 → The four official languages of Singapore (Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil) were enacted by the Singaporean Government. The selection of Tamil to represent the many Indian languages in Singapore, due to Tamil speakers consisting a significant majority of the Indian population in Singapore (Rai 2016).

1960s-1980s → Hindi was primarily only taught in community-run institutions, not officialised by the government in the Singapore education curriculum. Due to this, Hindi-speaking student populations fell to record lows (Gopinathan 2003).

1990 → Educational reforms allowed for NTIL students to sit for their Mother Tongue “O” Levels in the five approved NTIL languages (Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu).

1994 → NTIL students can sit for their Mother Tongue Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLEs) in the five approved NTIL languages (Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu).

2000 → The number of Hindi students, from kindergartens to junior colleges, increased to 3,000 students (Rai 2016).

2015 → The number of Hindi students hits a record high, exceeding 6,500 (Rai 2016).

Hindi-speaking community in Singapore today

Today, Hindi speakers can be found in a wide variety of industries, especially since the economic growth of India in the past decade. From business to technology, from healthcare to finance, the Hindi community comes from all walks of life in Singapore.