Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the International Abhidhamma Day celebrations held at Vigyan Bhavan and shared his views on the importance of the Pali language. Abhidhamma Day is celebrated to commemorate Lord Buddha’s descent from heaven after teaching Abhidhamma.

At the same time, the importance of this year’s Abhidhamma Day celebrations has increased further due to the recent recognition of Pali as a classical language along with four other languages, because Lord Buddha’s teachings on Abhidhamma are originally available in the Pali language. Along with this, Prime Minister Modi will share his views on the importance of Abhidhamma Day, the importance of the Pali language and the efforts of the government to preserve and promote the rich heritage of Buddha Dhamma. According to information, academicians and monks from 14 countries and a large number of young experts on Buddhism from various universities across India participated in the International Abhidhamma Day celebrations organized by the Government of India and the International Buddhist Confederation.

World Tribal Day or International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is a day to appreciate the culture, civilization, achievements of tribal people and their contribution to society and the environment. Tribal people have a special role to play in protecting the environment. These people need the environment as much as the environment needs them, so this day is celebrated to uphold their rights.

Indigenous and tribal people live in about 70 countries of the world. These people have their own culture, their own tradition, their own customs and their own world in which they take their resources from the environment. Talking about India alone, about 10 crore, 40 lakh people live in India. This number is about 8 percent of the country’s population. Tribals of India mostly reside in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

The celebration of this day started in the year 1994. In December 1994, the United Nations had decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People would be celebrated every year on 9 August. Seeing the need for this day, a proposal was made to celebrate it and the proposal was passed.

The celebration of this day was started by the United Nations to highlight the importance of the rights of tribal people because the United Nations is trying to ensure that the forests and homes of the tribal people are not taken away from them and their environment is not tampered with. This year on World Indigenous Day, the importance of ‘protecting the rights of indigenous people in voluntary isolation and initial contact’ is being emphasized. 

I believe that if tribal or indigenous people want to interact or join the society voluntarily, they should be allowed to do so but no kind of coercion should be done on them to become a part of the society, so this festival should always be celebrated traditionally with maximum joy and enthusiasm.

Article written by and Editorial credit: State Bureau Chief Himanshu Nauriyal.