An app a month to save a language
While speakers of most Indian languages worry about the influence of English, no group is so fearful about the decline of their mother tongue as Sindhis.
After they migrated from their homeland they have tried hard to preserve their language. They were successful in the early decades as community trusts built schools to teach the language and newspapers catered to a generation of migrants who knew no other tongue. In the last few decades, with the schools shifting to other languages and the newspapers shutting down, worry has grown that their language is endangered in India.
There have been campaigns to keep the language alive. Most colleges run by their trusts in Mumbai has made it compulsory for students from the community to learn the language. A few months ago, schools run by Sindhi trusts were asked to teach the language. There has been a long campaign to convince Doordarshan to start a television channel in the language after the only station beaming programmes in Sindhi shut down. There is also an internet radio in the language because there are no private or government broadcasters offering the service. The efforts continue.
A few weeks ago, at Adipur in Kutch, they launched a mobile application that can help younger members of the community to learn the language. The ‘Learn Sindhi’ app, which can be downloaded free on android phones, will help users master the 52-letter Nastalik or Arabic alphabet in which the language is usually written. An audio guide will help learners to understand pronunciation. As the app is largely targeted at children, the lessons are divided into 18 modules with a game at the end of each section to test the user’s progress. Marks are awarded for the test and the scores are carried forward to the next lesson. “A winner will be announced every month,” said Asha Chand of the group Sindhi Sangat which is promoting the app. “The idea is to get children involved in the activity.”
A second app, which will be introduced in a month’s timer, will look at idioms and proverbs in the languages. There will be another app for a more advanced course.
The programme has been divided into several apps so that it does not take up too much data space on phones.
Deepak Keshwani, a Thane resident who is a member of the team that conceptualised the app, said that Chand had a large set of DVDS that were used earlier to teach the language. “But the DVDS could be used only on computers; apps can be used anytime, especially while traveling,” said Keshwani who has been running the Internet radio service for five years.
Since the application’s launch on November 27, there have been around 200 downloads. The numbers are not very encouraging, but the creators of the apps are hoping to reach out to the community’s large diaspora.
Some members of the community are sceptical whether these efforts will work. “There have been a lot of attempts to promote the language, but unless there is an inbuilt need that the youth feels these projects will not work,” said Ranjit Bhutani who edited a quarterly community journal for 13 years before it folded up in 2013. “This decline is not peculiar to Sindhi; most Indian languages are struggling to find popularity among the younger generation which is more comfortable with English.” Keshwani is unperturbed by the reservations. “The biggest problem is that the younger generation is not communicating in the language; like other young Indians they are not proud to be seen speaking in their mother tongue,” said Keshwani. “But if they do want to learn the language, do they have access to material that is researched, validated and informative? We are trying to create information that is accessible, free and easy to use.”
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