Hindi may be official in UAE, but most Indians there speak Malayalam

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declared Hindi as its third official language to be used in courts, alongside Arabic and English. The move is an acknowledgement of the large number of Indians who live and work in the desert nation. Indians comprise over 26 lakh of the population in the UAE, making up to 30 per cent of the population and forming the largest expatriate community in the UAE. The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department said that the move was aimed to ensure Hindi speakers learned about the litigation procedures, and their rights and duties, without a language barrier, in addition to facilitating registration procedures via unified forms.

The move is ostensibly a step taken to further bilateral ties that have strengthened in recent years. During Narendra Modi's visit to the UAE in 2018, there was a ground breaking ceremony for a Hindu temple. Crown prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed granted a 13.7 acre plot for its construction, and it is reported that an additional 13 acres have been allowed for parking. The foundation stone is likely to be laid in April and construction, too, is likely to commence this yea

However, interestingly, many of the Indians living and working in the UAE do not speak Hindi as their native tongue. Almost half of them are from Kerala, where Malayalam is the language spoken. The next strong language group from India are the Tamils. The remaining are from various other parts of the country. 

The lawmakers in Abu Dhabi may not have gone into the details of India's language mix. The move, though, is a strong show of cementing ties. In recent weeks, India has had good help from the UAE government in extraditing people wanted by investigating authorities in india. These include Christian Michel, one of the middle-men wanted in connection with the Agusta-Westland chopper deal case, as well as Rajiv Saxena, a co-accused in the scam. Most recently, it also extradited Prabhjot Singh, wanted for murder by the Punjab Police. It is said that the extraditions were facilitated in a swap, with India sending back the UAE Princess Latifa, who was intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard while attemptign to flee from her plush, but inhibited life.