Bharati Lipi
The use of English is rapidly increasing in India, especially in recent decades. Even people who do not speak English frequently use the English script—also known as the Roman script—for a variety of purposes. For example, many individuals now write their names in English by default rather than using the script of their native language. A significant percentage of signboards across the country are in English. Names and other details on official documents such as Aadhaar cards, passports, ration cards, sale deeds, agreements, bank accounts, and railway reservation forms are typically written in English.
Even vegetable and grocery vendors often write the names of items in Indian languages using the English script. The menus in local tiffin centers frequently list Indian dishes such as idli and chapati in English script. The same trend is evident in labels on food packages for items like toor dal, ghee, and basmati rice. Plumbers and electricians in many cities and towns also use the English script to list required parts, even if the words themselves are from Indian languages. Ayurveda doctors often write prescriptions using the English script, even though the names of the medicines are entirely Indian.
Addresses on envelopes and packages are predominantly written in English. Otherwise, imagine the difficulty of delivering a letter with the address written in Bengali to someone in Punjab or Kerala. Subtitles for music videos or social media posts in regional languages are now commonly presented in English script as well. This reflects a generational shift—many young people are more comfortable reading and writing in the English script than in the script of their native language.
There are three key reasons for the popularity of the English script in India. First, it is widely known and used across the country, and it is the default script on typewriters, computers, phones, and tablets. Second, it is simple to learn, read, and write—thanks to its limited set of just twenty-six letters. Third, the shapes of the letters are quite simple, consisting mostly of basic vertical, horizontal, and diagonal strokes. This visual simplicity makes them easier and quicker to learn and write compared to the often intricate curves, loops, complex matras (diacritical marks), and half-letters found in many Indian scripts.
While simplicity is the virtue of the English script, its main shortcoming is the lack of sufficient letters to accurately represent the sounds of Indian languages. For instance, it does not have distinct characters for long and short vowels, which are common in Indian languages. Take the name of the country—Bharat. The first ‘a’ is a long vowel, and the second is short, but in English, both are written the same. As a result, it becomes impossible to distinguish between Bharat (भारत), the name of the country, and Bharat (भरत), a person's name.
Furthermore, the Roman script does not have enough letters to represent the diverse phonetics of Indian languages. As a result, we have had to make compromises—such as using 'th' for both ठ and त, as in Thakur and Tharuni. Similarly, we use the letter 'r' in words like Chandigarh and Chopra because there is no equivalent for the retroflex consonant ड़ in the Roman script.
Most Indian languages have three distinct ‘s’ sounds—श, ष, and स—but the Roman script is limited to just ‘s’ and ‘sh’. As a result, much of the younger generation cannot pronounce these sounds distinctly, and many are unaware that three separate ‘s’ sounds even exist. A similar issue arises with the ‘l’ sound: Kannada, Marathi, and Telugu have two distinct ‘l’ sounds; Tamil has three; and Malayalam has as many as five. All of these are collapsed into a single ‘l’ in the English script, leading to a loss of phonetic richness. This also results in workaround usages, such as using ‘Z’ to represent ழ in Tamil. The absence of proper nasal characters in English script forces awkward and distorted spellings like ‘mein’ for मैं in Hindi.
Another major issue is that the English script is not phonetic—its letters are not pronounced consistently. For example, ‘C’ sounds different in cat and center; ‘O’ in cot differs from ‘O’ in fork; and ‘I’ in item is pronounced differently from ‘I’ in ink. These inconsistencies lead to confusion when transcribing Indian names into English. For instance, does Milapur represent मिलापूर or मैलापूर? Such ambiguities become especially problematic when names are recorded in English for official purposes—like on Aadhaar cards or Google Maps—and later rendered back into Indian scripts. The results are often distorted beyond recognition or, worse, unintentionally humorous or offensive.
Despite its many shortcomings, we continue to rely on the Roman script simply because there is no viable alternative. What India truly needs is a script that is as simple and accessible as the Roman script, yet capable of representing the full range of phonetic sounds found across all Indian languages.
Bharati Lipi is a grassroots initiative aimed at creating exactly such a script—from the ground up. It is a script by the people and for the people. The Bharati Lipi Consortium serves as an open platform for individuals, associations, institutions, universities, government bodies, and other stakeholders to collaborate in developing and promoting this script.
The initiative is envisioned in two phases:
A new script like Bharati Lipi cannot be expected to gain widespread use overnight. It will require a gradual transition over decades. Even simple name changes—from Bombay to Mumbai or Madras to Chennai—took years to be accepted. Likewise, it took over two centuries for the Roman script to become as deeply embedded in Indian society as it is today.
Bharati Lipi aspires to begin that long but necessary journey—toward a common, inclusive, and phonologically rich writing system for all Indian languages.
The Devanagari Lipi, with some added characters, could have served as the Bharati Lipi. However, the issue with it, as with any other Indian language script, lies in its complexity—particularly the letters, Matras, and half-letters. This complexity is why the younger generation feels less comfortable with it compared to the English script. In fact, proficiency in reading native Indian scripts is gradually declining.
We envision a design for the Bharati Lipi that eliminates such complexity. Instead of using Matras and compound letters, it would feature the corresponding vowels and consonants written next to the base consonant, similar to the structure of the 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. In contrast, written in English script, it would be "stree," with the letters simply placed next to each other. We will adopt the same straightforward notation for the Bharati Lipi.
In the Bharati Lipi, we would also introduce letters to represent the vowels and consonants of foreign languages commonly used in India. Examples of such letters are 'a,' 'f,' and 'z.' 'a' and 'z' are frequently used in English and other European languages, while 'f' (often mistaken for 'ph') is common in European and Middle Eastern languages. Since Indian languages do not have the 'a' sound, the word "bank" is written differently across various languages—such as బ్యాంక్ (byank) in Telugu and बैंक (baink) in Hindi. These challenges will be addressed by the Bharati Lipi.
The specification of Bharati Lipi also includes rules for transliterating it into any existing language script.
There are numerous benefits to a Common Lipi, which many people can easily articulate. Here, we highlight some of them.
The use of information technology is rapidly rising. Most of the time, computers store information in English and render it in regional languages. This results in a lot of distortion of names of people and places, as seen on Aadhaar cards and online maps. With the Bharati Lipi, the computer industry can switch to storing information in Bharati Script and render it accurately in the regional language as needed. Bharati Lipi will make eCommerce websites, other websites, and smartphone apps easier to develop for businesses and simpler to use for consumers.
All identity records—whether Aadhaar cards, ration cards, bank accounts, insurance accounts, postal accounts, or land registration forms—can use the Common Lipi across India.
Currently, regional language scripts are predominantly used on road signs and buses in many states, making it difficult for visitors from other states to identify destinations or routes. As a result, many visitors miss the bus, board the wrong one, or abandon public transportation altogether. It’s as if one becomes illiterate upon crossing the border of their home state. This is one of the major problems solved by Bharati Lipi.
Bharati Lipi also addresses problems on the international stage. Global industries such as airlines and shipping, along with international agencies like the United Nations and the Red Cross, try to write the names of cities and other information in multiple international languages like Chinese, Spanish, and others, alongside English, on signboards, tags, display boards, labels, and so on. They face challenges when it comes to including Indian scripts, as there are too many of them. Bharati Lipi resolves this issue. All global industries and international agencies can use Bharati Lipi for such purposes. Indian passports can be printed in Bharati Lipi, and they can be rendered in any Indian language or English as needed by optical readers.
Bharati Lipi will be a boon for the Indian Diaspora. Many Indians who migrate to other countries around the world still stay connected to their roots. They wish to teach their culture and language to their children, but the lack of a common Lipi makes this task more difficult. With Bharati Lipi, children of Indian descent from various parts of India will be able to read and write national poems, such as 'Jana Gana Mana,' with equal comfort.
Similarly, Bharati Lipi will be beneficial for children, teachers, parents, and the management of international schools and central schools in India. Currently, children of parents who travel across India for job or business reasons face many challenges regarding the languages they have to learn. This problem will be eased, if not completely solved, with Bharati Lipi.
Bharati Lipi will also benefit children whose parents come from different parts of India, such as a Punjabi mother and a Telugu father. In many cases, parents take the easier route and just teach English to their children. With a common Lipi, children will be able to read texts in both parents' mother tongues.
Bharati Lipi can also be used to render Sanskrit documents. Sanskrit books, which are currently printed either in Devanagari script or in regional language scripts, are often printed in limited quantities for specific regional markets. With Bharati Lipi, more copies can be printed for the entire country, enabling the publishing industry to gain economies of scale.
This kind of initiative should have been started long ago, right after India's independence, either by the government or by the people. Although many recognize the need for and benefits of a common script, there has never been a platform for people to come together and create a one such script. We are trying to fill that gap with this initiative. Everyone who reads and writes any Indian language is invited and urged to become a member or supporter of the consortium.