Devanagari

Why some Indians want to change the country's name to 'Bharat'

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Religion, Education, Aryan, Culture, Politics, Leadership, Policy, Eswatini, Linguistics, History, Partition, Devanagari, Muslims, Language, Bharatiya Janata Party, Government, Brahmin, Name, BJP, Population, Time, Raj, Volta, G20, Parliament, Colonialism, Film industry, Jewellery, Urdu, Telugu, Hindus, Islam, Hinduism, Dravidian peoples, Malayalam

The word “India” is, after all, an exonym – a placename given by outsiders.

Key Points: 
  • The word “India” is, after all, an exonym – a placename given by outsiders.
  • Alongside English, Hindi is one of two languages used in the Indian Constitution, with versions written in each language.
  • But the use of “Bharat” has elicited outcry from the political opposition, some Muslims, and Hindu conservatives in the south, reflecting ongoing tensions in India between language, religion and politics.

Two different language families

    • My book with fellow linguist Julie Tetel Andresen, “Languages in the World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language,” covers the language history and politics of India.
    • Hindi is the most-spoken language in India, but its use is largely relegated to a part of the country that linguists refer to as “the Hindi belt,” a massive region in northern, central and eastern India where Hindi is the official or primary language.
    • Around 1500 B.C.E., a group of outsiders from Central Asia – known now as the Indo-Aryans – began migrating and settling in what is now northern India.
    • They spoke a language that would eventually become Sanskrit.

Dravidians spurn Hindi

    • But after independence, opposition to Hindi grew in the Dravidian-speaking south, where English was the favored lingua franca.
    • For Tamils and other Dravidian groups, Hindi was associated with the Brahmin caste, whom many felt marginalized Dravidian languages and culture.
    • For many people in the south, Hindi came to be seen as a language as foreign as English.

Nationalists push for one official language

    • In India, Hindus make up about 80% of the population, while Muslims make up about 14% – more than 200 million people.
    • One such policy is the promotion of Hindi as the sole official language of India.
    • Speaking in 2022 at a Parliamentary Official Language Committee meeting, BJP Home Minister Amit Shah said, “When citizens of states speak other languages, communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India.” To Shah, the “language of India” and Hindi were one and the same.

Suppressing Urdu

    • Although Urdu and Hindi are remarkably similar, their differences take on outsized religious and national significance.
    • Whereas Hindi draws on Sanskrit for new words, Urdu draws on Persian and Arabic, again emphasizing associations to Islam.
    • And whereas Hindi predominates in India, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, along with English.

Monotype & Canva Announce Partnership

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
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This partnership will provide high-quality and iconic type to businesses, designers, independent creatives, and individuals -- empowering them to create beautiful designs and experiences using the emotive quality of type to reinforce their storytelling and creativity. 

Key Points: 
  • "Our partnership with Canva puts high-quality fonts into the hands of more than 100 million people and will influence billions of designs.
  • "We're thrilled to partner with Monotype to bring a curated selection of their font library to Canva's global design community," said Jared Ben, Content Partnerships Lead at Canva.
  • "We're working to ensure that the best content is accessible on Canva, and this partnership with Monotype, who have set the standard for font design worldwide, reinforces our commitment to empowering users with the highest quality design tools and resources."
  • This curated font library will be fully available in Canva's platform over the next month, and the partnership between Monotype and Canva will extend into collaborative content and education, expanding the availability and knowledge of typography for Canva users, from marketers to small business owners and beyond.