Bharati Lipi
Bharati Lipi
The use of English is rapidly increasing in India, even more so in recent decades. Even the people who do not speak English use the English script, a.k.a. Roman script, for many purposes. For example, many people nowadays write their names in English by default rather than in their native language script. A good percentage of the signboards all over India are in English. Names and other details on the Aadhar cards, Passports, Ration Cards, sale deeds, agreements, bank accounts, railway ticket reservation forms, etc. are written in English.
Even vegetable vendors, grocery vendors write the Indian language names of the vegetables and groceries in English script. The menu list in local tiffin centers is often written in English script for such Indian names as Idli, Chapati, etc. The same is true with labels on food packages, such as Toor Dal, Ghee, Basmati Rice, etc. Plumbers and electricians in many cities and towns write the list of required parts using English script rather than their native language script. Even Ayurveda doctors write prescriptions in English script even though all the names of the Ayurvedic medicines are Indian.
Addresses on envelopes and packages are predominantly written in English. Otherwise, imagine the fate of a letter with address written in Bengali sent to someone in Punjab or Kerala. The subtitles for music videos or social media posts of regional languages are also written in English script these days exclusively. This is an indication of the younger generation being comfortable with reading/writing English script more than the script of their native language.
There are two reasons for the popularity of the English script. One, it is known and used across India and is the script found on the keyboards of erstwhile typewriters and today's computers, phones and tablets by default. Two, it is easy to learn, read and write, because it has only twenty-six letters and there are no complex Matras or half-letters. The strokes of the letters are also simple in English script. For example, 'a' in English is much simpler compared to अ in Devanagari or അ in Mayalayam.
Simplicity is the virtue of the English script, but lack of enough letters is its shortcoming. For example, it doesn't have separate letters for long vowels which are commonly used in India. The name of the country itself, Bharat, for example, uses the letter 'a' twice; the first one being the long 'a' and the second one being the short 'a'. But because of the lack of long vowels in English, we are forced to use the same for both. Because of this, Bharat (भारत) as in the name of our country and Bharat (भरत) as in the name of a person, cannot be differentiated from each other when written in English.
The 'ch' in Chennai and the 'ch' in Chattisgarh are not phonetically the same. The 'th' in Thakur and the 'th' in Thomas are not phonetically the same. The 'tt' in Kolkatta and and the 'tt' in Kottayam are not phonetically the same. There are not enough letters in English script to represent these kinds of differences. Similarly, we use 'r' in words like Chandigarh and Chopra, as there is no equivalent for ड़ in English.
There are three 's' sounds (श,ष and स) in most of the Indian languages, but in English script, we could only manage to write two of them as 's' and 'sh'. The result is that much of the younger generation cannot even pronounce the three 's' sounds distinct from each other. Some are not even aware that there are three variations to the 's' sound. The same thing is true with the 'l' sound. Some of the Indian languages, like Kannada, Marathi and Telugu have two 'l' sounds. Tamil has three 'l' sounds and Malayalam has as many as five 'l' sounds. They all get collapsed into a single 'l', when English script is used, resulting in the loss of phonetic diversity of Indian languages. Lack of variation on the 'l' sound in English script forces such uses as Z for ழ of Tamil. The lack of letters for nasal sounds in English script makes us invent such distorted and funny spellings as 'mein' for मैं of Hindi.
English Script is not phonetic. The letters are not pronounced the same all the time. For example, the same letter, 'C' is pronounced differently in cat, center. Same is true with 'O' in cot and 'O' in fork, and 'I' in item and 'I' in ink. This dual use causes problems when writing Indian names in English script. For example does 'milapur' stand for मिलापूर or मैलापूर ? Such issues become annoyingly evident with names on Aadhar cards or Google Maps recorded in English script and rendered in Indian language scripts. Sometimes the names get distorted beyond recognition. Sometimes they take some funny and even offensive forms.
We put up with the Roman script in spite of its shortcomings, as there is no other choice. We need a script that is simple like Roman script, but can represent all the variety of sounds in all the Indian languages.
The Bharati Lipi Consortium is a people's initiative to develop such a script from the ground up. It is for the people and by the people. It is a platform to facilitate every one, be it an individual, association, organization, university, government department or agency, to join hands and create and promote the use of such a script.
This initiative is divided into two phases. The focus in the first phase is on the Lipi Specification, which defines the full set of characters to accommodate all the various phonetic sounds from all Indian languages and the rules for the composition of syllables, and on the Lipi Design which lays out the shape of each letter. The focus in the second phase is on adaptation of the Lipi, by the schools, by the publishing industry, by the information technology industry, but the governmnet agencies and departments and so on.
A new Lipi like Bharati Lipi cannot be expected to be adopted instantly. It will take at least a couple of decades before it comes into common use. After all, it took that much of time even to transition from the use of 'Bombay' to 'Mumbai' and 'Madras' to 'Chennai'. And it took two centuries for the use of English Script to become as common as it is today.
Devanagari Lipi with some added characters could have served as the Bharati Lipi. But the problem with it, as with any other Indian language script, is its complexity of letters, Matras and half-letters, which is why the younger generation doesn't feel as comfortable with it as it does with the English script. In fact, the proficiency in reading the native scripts of India is gradually falling.
We envision a design for the Bharati Lipi that is devoid of such complexity. Instead of Matras and compound letters it would use the corresponding vowels and consonants themselves written next to the base consonant just as in English script. For example, the word स्त्री written in any Indian language (স্ত্রী, સ્ત્રી, ਸ੍ਤ੍ਰੀ, ಸ್ತ್ರೀ, സ്ത്രീ, ସ୍ତ୍ରୀ, ஸ்த்ரீ, స్త్రీ) is complex requiring the use of half-letters and Matras, whereas written in English script it would be 'stree' with the letters written simply next to each other. We will adopt the same simple notation for the Bharati Lipi.
In Bharati Lipi we would also add letters to represent vowels and consonants of foreign languages that are used frequently in India. Examples of such letters are 'a', 'f' and 'z'. 'a' and 'z' are heavily used in English and other European languages and 'f' (usually mistaken for 'ph') is used in European and Middle Eastern languages. Because we do not have 'a' sound in Indian languages, we write 'bank' in different ways in different languages, such as బ్యాంక్ (byank) in Telugu and as बैंक (baink), in Hindi. Such problems will be solved by the Bharati Lipi.
The specification of Bharati Lipi includes rules about transliterating Bharati Lipi into any existing Language script.
There are numerous benefits to a Unified Lipi, which many people can easily articulte. Here, we highlight some of them.
The use of information technology is rapidly rising. Most of the times, the computers store information in English and render it in the regional language. This is causing lots of destortion of names of people and places, as can be seen on Aadhar cards and online maps. With Bharati Lipi, computer industry can switch to storing the information in Bharati Script and then render it accurately in regional langugae as and when needed. Bharati Lipi will make eCommerce websites and other websites and smartphone apps easier, both for the businesses to develop and for the consumers to use.
All the identity records, be they adhar cards, ration cards, bank accounts, insurance accounts, postal accounts, land registration forms can use the Unified Lipi all over India.
As of now, regional language scripts are predominatly used on the road signs and on the buses in many states, making it difficult for visitors from the other states to figure out the destination or route of the bus. As a result, many of the visitors miss the bus or board the wrong bus, or have to completely abandon the use of public transportation. It is as if one becomes an illiterate as soon as he crosses the border of his home state. This is one of the major problems solved by Bharati Lipi.
Bharati Lipi also solves problems on the international stage. Global industries such as airlines, shipping industries, and international agencies such as the United Nations and Red Cross, try to write the names of cities and other information in multiple international languages such as Chinese, Spanish, etc., besides English on signboards, tags, display boards, labels, and so on. They are at a loss when it comes to including Indian scripts on such occasions, as there are too many of them. Bharati Lipi solves the problem. All global industries and international agencies can use Bharati Lipi for such purposes. Indian passports can be printed in Bharati Lipis, and it can be rendered in any Indian languages or English as needed, by optical readers.
Bharati Lipi will be a boon for Indian Diaspora. Many Indians, who migrate to other countries all around the world, still keep in touch with their roots. They like to teach their culture and langugage to their children. Not having one common Lipi to teach, makes their job that much difficult. With Bharati Lipi, children of descent from various parts of India would be able to write and read such national poems as 'Jana Gana Mana' with equal comfort.
Simiarly, Bharati Lipi will be a boon for children, teachers, parents and the management of international schools based in India and central schools. As of now, the children of the parents who travel across India for job or business reasons face a lot of issues, regarding the languges they have to learn. This problem will be eased, if not completely solved, with Bharati Lipi.
Bharati Lipi will also be a boon for the children, whose parents come from different parts of India, such as a Punjabi mother and Telugu father. Many a time, in such situations, the parents take the easy path and just teach English to the children. With a common Lipi, the children will be able to read texts of both parents' mother tongues.
Bharati Lipi can also be used to render Sanskrit documents. The Sanskrit books, currently, are printed either in Devanagari script or in the regional language scripts, a few copies each, for the specific regional markets. With Bharati Lipi more copies can be printed for entire India, and the publishing industry will gain economies of scale.
This kind of initiative should have been put in place long time back, after India's Independence, either by the governmnet or by the people. Though many people see the need and benefits of a unifying script, never was there a platform for them to come together and create a unified Lipi. This initiative fills that gap. Everyone who reads and writes any Indian language is invited and urged to become a member or supporter of the consortium.