COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY & HINDI
Thoughts on how improper translation and unavailability of computing technology-related material in Hindi is creating a knowledge disadvantage to non — English speaking communities
English is considered the language of Science & Technology. According to “Why English Matters,” 98% of scientific articles published today are in English. As the majority of technology-related material is available in English, it is interesting to look into how content translates into local languages and analyze the impact of it. We decided to look into computing technology-related material available in Hindi.
How humans, computing tech and their relationship is conceptualized and talked about in Hindi?
To maintain the diversification across literature, we chose the following material:
- A newspaper report discussing an artificial intelligence technology
HBTU, Kanpur, designed a braille keyboard and interactive screen that reads our search options for visually challenged people. They are also working on achieving computer vision — where robots can identify objects like humans.
2. An essay on advanced technologies
Ref: https://happyhindi.com/new-technology-hindi-essay/
The essay talks about nine advanced technologies that are going to change the world — 3D Printing, Self-Driving Cars, Robotics & AI, Hyperloop, Internet of Things, Brain Controlled Computers, Artificial Pink Light Farms, Virtual Reality & Human Space Flight.
3. A science-fiction story for kids
Ref: https://me.scientificworld.in/2008/07/blog-post.html
The story is about a boy that dreams of building a robot that can do his maths homework. In the story, a kid constructs an anthropomorphic robot made of iron. The robot communicates through a display screen on its tummy. After the physical construction of the robot, the boy realizes it does not respond to his commands. The child then understands the robot needs a brain. For that, he needs to learn coding and design algorithms.
4. A Chapter on Technology in design from the book “Design Samvaad”:
This talks about how the younger generation is creating technology to help everyone. It explains the concept through examples of voiced replies for visually challenged and MRI machines.
Analysis
The newspaper article stated about the future where robots did mundane jobs for humans. The piece assumes that readers have knowledge about artificial intelligence and chose not to expand on what, the how and why of it.
In the story, the kid understands that the robot needs a brain to function like a human and realizes that it is easier to solve his homework. It is interesting to ponder on the question of why the robot is imagined in human form. The story introduces robotics and coding in a way that little children can also understand the context of Artificial Intelligence.
For easy understanding of technology, a few references have been made to Indian mythology & literature. In the essay, the author compares 3D printing technology to a magic pencil from a famous Hindi television series “Shakalaka Boom Boom”. The magic pencil that brings to life any drawing made using it. So the 3D printer brings to life the 3D modelled drawings that we supply to the printer. The same essay when discussing self-driving cars has a video link to explain the functioning of cars — the video is in French and subtitles in English.
Thoughts on the role of the regional language in shaping this conceptualization…
In all the above literature, the authors promise a significant change in the future without an in-depth analysis of technology. In the piece about nine technologies that will change the world, the author is certain that robots will take away mundane daily jobs from humans. The articles are either utopian or dystopian when it comes to technology and its impact.
It is evident that the terms like “Artificial Intelligence”, “Network”, “Internet of Things”, even “Computer” do not have words in Hindi that communicate the meaning of their English counterparts. Interestingly though, other streams of sophisticated technology — Astronomy, Space, Nuclear Physics, Electrical, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering — all have terms or words to describe them in Hindi. They have definite words for their English counterparts & also its constituents that describe certain technology. We think this is due to the presence of all these sciences in school level education in all Hindi medium based schools. These sciences translated across communities, hence making it easier to record the progress as there are words already existing in Hindi which form the basis of that technology. For computing technologies, which are relatively new, there is no record made in Hindi or a process initiated to translate the technical aspects into Hindi. So the translation of these technologies never reached non-English speaking communities.
The economically forward communities that interact with the English language can get the necessary technical knowledge from English literature directly. Hence, they don’t need any technical vocabulary support from a regional language, thus neglecting its translation. While the economically backward sections who do not have access to English are lost with not so complete translations and inability to access original content in English. This is driving technology to be associated and reachable to a certain section of society.
Although the words like “computer”, “robot” are common today as they are used regularly in our lives, we cannot wait until artificial intelligence and machine learning also become common and then people start understanding what it means because now they can experience the technology. The knowledge must be accessible to everybody and hence a proper diction must be created and the technologies must be translated into Hindi.
Although there is a word for technology in Hindi — “Pradyogikee”, there is direct use of the English word “technology” written in Hindi scripture. We think this kind of usage does not encourage users with a non-English background to read more about technology.
A local language like Hindi has the power to reach out to local people and educate them about coming technologies and how they can interact with them, hence fuelling their imagination and aspirations. We think universities, journalists and scholars in India should make an effort should introduce computer-related technology in local languages from school, figure a diction and translate the technical jargon to local languages so technology is available to everyone — first in knowledge, so humans understand how to interact with it when they have it in their possession.
By Mrinalini Majumdar & Sanjana Kothapalli
