Johannesburg, Sep 24 (IANS): One was from Italy, another from Thailand and yet another from Russia... Twenty scholars from across the world were honoured at the World Hindi Conference here Monday for being torchbearers of the language.

Among those recognized at three day meet ending Monday was Marko Jolly, who teaches at Ca Foscari university in Venice. An Italian, Jolly also runs the Hindi learning centre, Santro Resource India.

"I was highly impressed with Hindi, so I trained in this language and started to promote Hindi in Italy. In my university, every year at least 30-40 students enrol in Hindi classes," Jolly told IANS.

Bamrung Kham from Thailand, who also teaches Hindi at university level, says the language is growing in popularity in his country. He guides at least 30 undergraduate Hindi students.

Another Hindi lover is Katrina Balereeba Dowbanya, who says that her efforts to attract students towards the language in her country Ukraine has paid dividends.

At least 25-30 students have completed their graduation in Hindi from Ukraine University.

Amongst the other foreign Hindi scholars who were awarded at the ninth edition of the conference were Peter Gerard Fredlander of Australia, Sargai Serebriyani of Russia, Dagmar Markova of Czech Republic, Sarita Budhu of Mauritius, Vanya Jarjiwa Gancheva of Bulgaria, Bholanath Narayan of Surinam and K. Zabullah Fiqri of Afganistan.

Eighteen Indian scholars were also honoured for their enriching contribution in the promotion of Hindi.