Dr. Vimlesh Kanti Verma is a thought leader in the area of Hindi language teaching and Hindi in the diaspora.
While there are numerous writers and poets in Hindi, there are very few linguists in India who are focusing on the nuts and bolts of keeping Hindi vibrant and evolving as a language. His expertise in the teaching of Hindi as a foreign language can be gauged from the number of students trained by him from around the globe. Dr. Vimlesh Kanti is also a sought after key-note speaker at public events.
Dr. Vimlesh Kanti Verma sits on a number of government advisory boards where his voice is recognized as impartial and completely committed to the advancement of Hindi.
Dr. Vimlesh Kanti Verma has been credited for leading the movement to embrace a variety of forms of Hindi into the Hindi mainstream. Despite vehement opposition from “purists” especially in India, Dr. Vimlesh Kanti has championed the cause of “Fiji Baat”, “Surnami Hindi” and “Naitali”. Through his numerous books and research papers he has almost single handedly championed the cause of authors and poets writing in these forms of Hindi language. Through these works of Dr. Verma the writings of authors and poets in these languages have reached the shores of Hindi readers. At many international and national fora Dr. Vimlesh Kanti Verma has been a lone but strong voice in support of accepting modern and natural evolution of Hindi. He has articulated often the need to appreciate language as a medium of communication and bringing people together over a tool for divisions.
Dr. Vimlesh Kanti Verma is a researcher, scholar and a respected teacher of Hindi and Indology. A senior linguist, Dr. Verma, has been teaching Hindi Language, Literature and Applied Linguistics to graduate and post graduate students of Delhi University for more than four decades. His fields of contribution are Devotional Hindi Poetry (Ram kavya and Krishna kavya), Textual Criticism, Lexicography, Translation Studies and Hindi as a foreign language.
Dr. Verma initiated the Hindi Teaching programs at the University of Toronto, Canada (1973), University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria (1974-1978) and University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Islands (1986). In India he has been associated with the Hindi Teaching Programs of American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi, Max Muller Bhavan, New Delhi (Cultural Wing of German Embassy in India) besides University of Delhi. Dr. Verma has conceptualized, designed and implemented several Hindi Language Courses for foreigners. The language teaching aids developed by him are used extensively in India and abroad. Dr. Verma’s Bulgarian-Hindi Dictionary published by Govt. Publishing House “Nauka I Iskustvo” (1978) is a pioneer work in the field of lexicography while his Learner’s Hindi-English Dictionary (2006) is the first pedagogical dictionary prepared specially for foreigners learning Hindi. He has translated a number of classical Bulgarian writings from the original language.
Twice the Government of Bulgaria has honored Dr. Verma with the National Honors, for strengthening cultural relations between Bulgaria and India through translations. Dr. Verma has 28 books and 60 research papers published on various aspects of Hindi Language and Literature.
