As Internet penetration in India deepens, the use of local languages is increasing on the Internet, and the number of local language Internet users has already overtaken English-language users. Even so, more needs to be done for smooth localisation of Internet
JAY JOSHI
The Internet is growing rapidly in India. As of December 2018, figures from a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) suggest that around 66% of urban Indians are now connected to the Internet while the number stands at 21% for the rural areas. Interestingly, as the web influences the Indians, they too are having an influence on it. When the Internet first came around in the country, its language was English, but not anymore. Not only are Indians using the Internet increasingly in their regional languages, but also, the number of Indians using the Internet in their own language if far greater than that of English.
According to a 2017 report by Google, there were 234 million Indian-language Internet users in 2016, where as English-language users stood at 175 million. This has happened due to two key reasons, say trend observers: firstly, low prices of mobile data are making it possible for Indian across all walks of life to gain access to the Internet, and secondly, the availability of Indic language keyboards on mobile phones has solved a number of issues with standardisation of fonts.
Statistics show that 9 out of 10 Indians will now use use the Internet in their own language. What’s more, even those who do know English many time prefer to stick to their own language. “I would rather post in Konkani than English on networks such as Facebook, because I can express myself better in my mother-tongue, and that way, I can get the message across more clearly”, says advocate Hrishikesh Kadam from Panaji. But why stick to your mother-tongue when you know English, and can reach a broader audience using that language?
“Why would I use English if i want to reach my Goan friends on Facebook?” counter-questions Hrishikesh, citing that the intention behind using Konkani on Facebook is to reach ‘deep rather than wide’. The lawyer further brings to note the fact that Indian politicians too are posting in regional languages to reach their audience. “There is a political leader in India who did not know the state-language of his own state. But he has now begun posting in that language on social media. He did not feel the need to do that earlier What does this signify?” quips Kadam.
An increase in people expressing themselves on Internet in their own language is a welcome development, but more needs to be done on this front, says Dr Vitthal Thakur, a Marathi writer and publisher from Marcel. “A lot of Marathi websites have come up, and reading of the language among young people has certainly increased, but we need more web content in regional languages,” says Dr Thakur. “More and more regional language books need to be made available as e-books, and they need to be promoted and advertised on par with the English books on the Internet.” says Dr Thakur, adding that a large number of regional language books have failed to make it to the online realm because many old authors are not familiar with technology.
Journalist and publisher Frederick Noronha also notes that though the number of users in regional language is increasing on Internet, there is shortage of online content in these language. Noronha has been working to generate Konkani content for Wikipedia, and also underlines that it is important to get Konkani working on Google translate. “We have a lot of fiction writing in Konkani, but more needs to be done to create non-fiction content which gives you real knowledge.” observes Noronha. At the time of writing this article, the number of Hindi articles on Wikipedia was around 129,988 articles, while Marathi stood at 53078 articles, and Konkani had around 3,611 articles. As more and more local language users join the Internet, the content issue will be solved, hope observers
