Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha

• Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha is an organisation whose main goal is to improve Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South Indi and is headquartered in Chennai.
• The organisation was established by Annie Besant with support from Mahatma Gandhi, who became the founder president of the Sabha, who held the post till his death.
• The first Hindi class here was taken by M. Gandhi’s son Devdas Gandhi.
• In 1964, the institution was recognised by the Indian Government as one of the Institutes of National Importance.

Hindi Movement in South India

• The Hindi movement in South India was started in the year 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Gandhi saw the need to unite the northern and southern states of the country in the greatest interest of integration of the nation, as Hindi was spoken by the largest section of the people of India.
• Therefore, he founded this Sabha at Madras to propagate the study of Hindi in the then Madras Presidency and other princely states.
• Under this, Hindi training schools were started in Andhra and Tamil Nadu.
• By 1927, the Hindi Prachar Sabha emerged as an independent organization, and Mahatma Gandhi remained its president until his death in 1948.
• Gandhiji desired that the ‘Hindi Prachar‘in the south should be carried on by involving the local people of the respective area.

Source: PIB & Wikipedia