Johannesburg (South Africa) Sep 24 (IANS): Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of satyagraha (non-violent resistance) acted as a great force and inspiration in promoting Hindi and his vision was revolutionary, said experts at the Ninth World Hindi Conference here Monday.

They paid rich tributes to Mahatma Gandhi for his role in promoting Hindi as the confluence of all languages in India.

Vibhuti Narayan Rai, Hindi scholar and vice chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha said: "Gandhi envisioned Hindi as a confluence of languages and a major contact language for Indian society."

Rai expressed concern that as the official Indian language, Hindi is enslaved in government files and such an attitude is a bane for the promotion of Hindi.

Expressing his views on the "lingual vision of Gandhi and in the present context", Rai said the attitude of the Father of the Nation towards Hindi used to inspire people to learn other languages.

Hindi critic Krishna Dutt Paliwal said: "Mahatma Gandhi's mission was to make Hindi the core contact language of India. He envisioned it as a language which could take on the challenges of English on its own."

Senior journalist Madhukar Upadhyay talked about five points that Mahatma Gandhi had raised decades ago in Bharuch while discussing the stature of Hindi in India.

Upadhyay said Hindi's distance with dialects and Urdu is widening, which would harm Hindi in the future. Hindi critic Vijay Bahadur Singh said the Mahatma's efforts to promote Hindi will never forgotten.

The conference began Sep 22 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg and is being attended by 700 scholars and delegates from across the world.