The reception to the teaching of Hindi in Trinidad has been mixed: enthusiasm, indifference, scepticism and resistance. While Hindi is accepted as part of the culture of people of Indian ancestry, it is not generally regarded as a language that merits the same attention afforded to Spanish, which has now been formally declared the “First Foreign Language of Trinidad and Tobago”2 . The promotion of Hindi has been associated with religious and cultural identity and ethnicity. However, Hindi studies are not normally undertaken against the background of the global impact of modern India which is now emerging as an economically strong state, a "superpower" in world trade.