The Central Hindi Directorate has been set up with the objective of furthering and developing the use of the Hindi language in the country. The Directorate was established in 1960 by the Presidential order in pursuance of the special directive of the Constitution of India envisaged in Article 351, which says, "It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages."

Precisely, the policy maker`s desire was to develop Hindi so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India. It was therefore, made a duty of the Union Government along with the promotion of Hindi to develop it accordingly. Deriving it`s commitments from the above directive, the Directorate has been implementing a number of schemes to achieve the objective as enshrined in the Constitution and to perform the duty of the Union Government as per the Constitutional Directive.

Activities of Central Hindi Directorate
The Central Hindi Directorate conducts the following activities:

Correspondence Courses: Teaching of Hindi to non-Hindi speaking Indians and foreigners as second and foreign language respectively. Over 10,000 students are taught Hindi every year.

Publication: Preparation of dictionaries in regional and foreign languages and publishing standard reference material for the learners of Hindi, the scholar and the highest teacher. Dictionaries and conversational books are prepared for the purpose (Bi-lingual, Tri- lingual and Multi-lingual).

Extension Programmes:

i) Organising camps for Neo-Hindi Writers to harness budding writers into eminent litterateurs.

ii) Study tours for students: The study tours are organised for Hindi students every year.

iii) Professors lecture tours: It provides a forum for interaction of Professors from non-Hindi speaking areas with those of Hindi speaking areas.

iv)Grants to research Scholars: Grants are provided to students for pursuing higher studies in Hindi.

v) Awards: Awards of Rupees1 Lakh each are given to writers from non-Hindi speaking areas for their writing in Hindi. Awards are also given to original writings in Hindi irrespective of mother tongue for production of books of Science, Technology, Education and Education Policy.

Grants to Voluntary Hindi Organisations: Grant-in-aid is provided to the VHOs functioning in non-Hindi speaking states of the country. This is a unique scheme by associating voluntary organisations. Thus the use of Hindi is promoted not only by associating the people who voluntarily participate in propagation of Hindi in their areas but also ensure private participation in implementation of the same.