Language Divide Goes Online

IAMAIs (Internet and Mobile Association of India), IMRB report on vernacular
content in India, released on December 31, 2008, evokes a sense of concern. The
report puts the number of local languages websites in India at a disappointing
1,249. That is a paltry number when we consider the fact that there are over
1,600 regional dialects in the country. According to the same study, Hindi is
the third most spoken language in the world while Telugu is the most spoken
Indian language. Keeping these numbers in the purview, it is strange that the
report claims no Indian language is among the top 10 languages on the
Internet.

So why is it that local language Internet has not taken off yet, even though
we have been pronouncing it as the next big thing since quite some time? The
primary reason for this is of course the lack of regional content generation.
But together with that, there are infrastructure and penetration constraints
which have hindered the growth story of a localized Web world.

Why so Slow?

There is no doubting the fact that the growth has been negligible when it
comes to local language Internet. What is more surprising is the fact that we
have been talking about it all along, yet it has never really entered the
popular domain. The Internet fraternity pronounced it to be the next big thing
in India, the government said it would help them bridge the great urban-rural
digital divide and the government school educated parents kept telling their
public school educated children that their day on the Internet is not too far
now.

But none of it has happened. The digital divide is very much a reality and so
is the incompetency of non-English users on the Internet. Agreed that local
language content is mushrooming up on the Internet, but the fact is that this
beginning should have happened much earlier. So what is it that has been
hindering what almost everybody took to be a certainty few years back? When we
have a look at the reasons there is no clear winner but a whole bunch of factors
which comes into play.

Some of them appear to be regulatory hassles, technological hurdles, and
limited penetration of the Internet. According to Tarun Abhichandnani, insights
director, IMRB International, Mumbai, the biggest issue has been that of reach.
According to him there are only 5.5 mn regional language Internet users. That is
a small number considering Indias population. First the Internet has to reach
the people. Only then the local Internet shall reach them, he insists. He says
that there is a huge gap that needs to be covered and this can only happen if
the Internet reaches more and more people.

This also brings up the market dynamics. While most people say that there
isnt enough local language content available, content providers say that there
isnt any substantial demand for local language content. After all, every
content developer needs to see some traffic before designing any type of
content. The matter is simple, blame it on low demand or low supply, the fact is
that Internet is not reaching as many rungs of the ladder as it was predicted.
As Rahul Roy-Choudhary, product manager, Indic Web, Google India notes,
Whatever said and done, Indians are not getting the full benefits of the Web.

Some numbers make it simpler to understand. There are close to 650 mn
literate people in India but our online population is only around 60 mn. That is
a huge gap and not something to ignore. The other prominent reason that emerges
for the slow progress of local languages on the Internet is the technological
considerations. Even until 2008, the domain names couldnt appear in local
languages. But even though technological hassles have been overcome to some
extent now, the usability and adaptability factors are still very low.
Abhichandnani notes that Hindi URL encoding for websites hasnt come in
practical usage even till now. And this is the reason that even sites with
local language content like Jaagore.com have their registered domain names in
English.

Pushing the Language Keys

It is not unusual to see Hindi scraps in your Orkut scrapbook during Diwali,
Dushherra, and other such festivals. Similarly its Bengali messages doing the
round during Durga Puja and Punjabi ones in Baisakhi.

The sudden increase in the local language traffic at festival times
demonstrates the highly temporal concept the local language has become on the
Internet. It is not an end in itself but instead is serving as a cultural symbol
as and when required. The otherwise English language users switch to their
regional dialects whenever viable. The logic is simple, says Prashant Ahuja, an
Orkut user, Diwali messages are better conveyed in Hindi. So we use Hindi
around that time.

Abhichandnani brings out the underlying problem behind such selective use of
language. This shows occasional use of a regional language by people who have
English as their primary language. That means online services are just not
targeted enough for the users, he says.

Haren Cohen, CEO, FTK Technologies adds to this by saying, We saw that Web
language facilities are not reaching the mass users. That is why we decided to
build a language software. Lookeys, the language software designed by FTK acts
as a virtual keyboard and enables computer usage (not just the Internet but all
programs) in ten Indian languages.

And many such initiatives are acting as a face-lift for the bleak state of
local languages over the Web. The reasoning behind this is clear; while Internet
hasnt reached too many rural areas, computing has. So punch in those language
keys, so what if Web doesnt have too much to offer.

Hindi expectedly dominates while Tamil and Bengali too had a fair share. However, if you discount blogs and personal websites, the situation is really pathetic

Blog Away to Glory

Yes, you guessed it right. If there is one arena where local languages have
made their presence felt, it is the blogosphere. According to the IAMAI report,
there are over 40,000 Indian languages blogs, which can be classified as mostly
personal or collaborative blogs. The local language usage, though scarcely seen
over the Internet in general, has assumed an air of comfort in the blog domain.

While this article was still in the pipeline, we browsed through as many as
fifty Hindi, Punjabi, and Bangla blogs. Although they might look strange to the
eyes of an English-oriented Internet user, they had a sense of community around
them, which in turn inculcates a tone of confidence of being read only by a
closed user group. The blogs mostly were community centric and addressed very
local and generic issues.

Some of the more professional blogging took up larger issues and addressed
them with a passion that your own dialect often add to a cause. Notes Sukhvindar
Singh, a writer with a Hindi daily and a regular blogger (his blog is totally in
Hindi), Its not that Im not comfortable or cant handle the English language.
But I prefer blogging in Hindi because it adds passion to what Im trying to
say. Besides, I think I write for the masses, and what better language than our
mother tongue to reach the people.

However, here are some random observations about the regional blogs that we
went through. Almost all blogs had a no nonsense feel attached to them. The
fonts and the looks were simple, basic and the topics dealt with were in no way
paltry. Be it issues of self introspection, terror, poverty, corruption or lack
of water and electricity in Gurgaon, most of the blogs were in a very serious
vein; as if intellectuality was closely linked to the language. Also, most blogs
assumed that only a certain type of reader would read them and made no pretense
to serve anybody else. For eg, we came across a blog that was only for Hindi
lecturers of University of Delhi and focused on their concerns alone.

Another thing that was common in some blogs was relief. Relief at finally
being able to express themselves in the language that they are most comfortable
with. We also saw a couple of notes of gratitude written to Blogspot and
Wordpress for enabling people to blog locally! The news value that they wanted
to give to their readers was the other common factor among the blogs Along with
disaster blogging. For instance, after the recent terror strike in Mumbai, there
was a remarkable increase in regional language blog entries, not only in Marathi
but in other languages too.

Not Quite as Bleak

Agreed that 1,249 is too low a figure for regional language websites and
enough to bring in disappointment. But hold on, it isnt time to give up yet.
The scenario is not as bleak as it looks. A Google spokesperson lights up things
a little when he points out that the estimate of regional websites is quite on
the lower side.

There are some inaccuracies in the report published by IAMAI and authored by
IMRB titled Vernacular Content in India. We have brought this to the notice of
the authors of the report.

To give two very simple examples:

• The report indicates that there are no Bengali search engines. An example
  of a Bengali search enginegoogle.co.in/bn
• The report indicates that there are no social networking sites in Marathi,
  Gujarati and Kannada whereas Orkut is available in all these languages.

Abhichandnani of IMRB agrees, The number is bit on the lower side. This was
a phased research and Internet is an ever-growing space. Some websites have thus
been missed out. That makes the situation not as bad, though its still not
pretty from any perspective. But that too is already changing. With the local
news channels booming, regional language news is already big on the Web. Big
names like Sun and Zee are already in this space. And regional blogs have also
made themselves noticed.

All the names that matter, from Yahoo! to Google to Rediff, have ventured
into this domain and swear by its potential. Infact, Rediff recently announced
its plans to facilitate communications in twenty-two regional languages. After
extensive study we found that regional languages are coming up on the Internet
in a big way. We will also be offering our customers the facility to communicate
in twenty-two different regional languages soon, says Rediff founder and CEO
Ajit Balakrishnan.

Go to the Indic web-blog and you shall see that regional language on the
Internet is indeed making progress. So while the picture is far from pleasant
right now, the colors are slowly being filled in. In the end I would like to
pick up a few lines from a blogger on Blogspot. This fellow from an average
middle class Indian family is now based in the UK. One fine day, while
remembering his parents back home, he wrote a post about them and in a nostalgic
ending remarked, I await that day when my parents will be able to read this
blog, translated in Hindi and post comments on it too, in Hindi, in the only
language they can read and write in.

Well, we are all awaiting for that day most eagerly. It doesnt seem too far
off now.

Mehak Chawla

mehakc@cybermedia.co.in