'Aatmanirbharta' Goes Global! After PM Modi's Push, Oxford Names It As Hindi Word Of The Year 2020

For the year 2020, an advisory panel of language experts Kritika Agrawal, Poonam Nigam Sahay and Imogen Foxell chose the word 'Aatmanirbharta'.

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After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's greater push to the concept of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, Oxford Languages has chosen ‘Aatmanirbharta’ as its Hindi Word of the Year for 2020.

Usually, any word or an expression that attracts a great deal of interest in the preceding year, is considered for Oxford’s 'Word of the Year'. The word is chosen to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year. 

For the year 2020, an advisory panel of language experts Kritika Agrawal, Poonam Nigam Sahay and Imogen Foxell chose the word 'Aatmanirbharta' as it is expected to have a lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.

News agency PTI in its report quoted the Oxford Languages stating that in the early months of the pandemic when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s COVID-19 recovery package, he emphasised the need to become self-reliant as a country, as an economy, as a society and as individuals, in a bid to navigate the perils of the pandemic. Following prime minister’s address, there was a massive increase in the usage of aatmanirbharta.

Oxford University Press India managing director Sivaramarkrishnan Venkateswaran reportedly said "In an unprecedented year, aatmanirbharta found resonance with a wide cross-section of people as it is seen to be an answer to the revival of a COVID-impacted economy."

In the past, Hindi words such as Aadhar (2017), Nari Shakti (2018) and Samvidhaan (2019) were pegged in for the Word of the Year.