Bharati script, a recently developed form of writing by Srinivasa Chakravathy’s team at IIT Madras, is making waves due to its potential to unify writing for all major Indian languages. This script is not merely meant to reflect a specific language but is a compilation of symbols used for writing across various languages such as Devanagari, Roman, and more.
Understanding the Bharati Script
Providing a comprehensive solution for expressing most Indian languages, Bharati script incorporates simplicity in its design. Borrowing elementary characters from a multitude of Indian scripts and English, it has the versatility to support languages such as Hindi/Marathi (Devanagari), Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, and Malayalam.
The Technology behind the Bharati Script
The development team at IIT Madras has utilized advanced technology such as multi-lingual Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to facilitate the reading of documents in Bharati script. OCR is an advanced system providing full alphanumeric recognition of printed or handwritten characters at electronic speed by merely scanning the document.
Furthermore, the team has also designed a finger-spelling method, which can be employed to generate a sign language, particularly useful in communicating with the hearing-impaired.
Applications and Tools
To ease the transition of using Bharati script, related applications and tools such as the Bharati Handwriting Keyboard and Bharati Transliterator have been developed. Transliteration changes the letters from one alphabet or language into the corresponding, similar-sounding characters of another alphabet. It allows words in one language to be comprehensible by those who speak another language, focusing on pronunciation rather than meaning, making transliteration ideal for discussing foreign people, places, and cultures.
Significance of the Bharati Script
The advent of the Bharati script correlates with the ‘One Nation, One Script’ goal. Drawing from the precedent set by the Roman script that serves as a common script for several European languages, the Bharati script could help to dismantle communication barriers within India.
The Bharati script possesses the potential to aid future generations of Indians to conveniently read in various Indian languages, serve as a writing system for tribal and regional languages with no existing script, and even function as a bridge for migrant Indians who move for work.
The dissemination of the Bharati script could also reap benefits such as connecting Non-Resident Indian children back to Indian literature, possibly deriving a fingerspelling system for the hearing-impaired, and reducing the duration of adult literacy programs due to the straightforwardness of the script.
