User talk:Venkatesan

Lessons from Willam Carey – IndiaEncounter to Wikimedia – India Encounter: Wikimedia foundation wants to create a world where every human being has free access to sum total of humanknowledge; One of the focus is to create and provide every one access toencyclopedia in chosen language; it is be to realized primarily by voluntary donations, intellectualcontributions of various kinds, and meaningful coordination among manypeople. 100 years back, none would havesuggested such visions will be voiced and tried with vigor. I will term it in exercise in KnowledgeMission with secular humanist faith. This venture is full of challenges of various kinds. WilliamCarey (1761-1834) was a ProtestantChristian missionary who came to Indiaand contributed to various developments in India which was under East IndiaCompany. He was a pioneer in production of Bible in different Indian Languages including Sanskrit. His efforts ledto growth of Indian languages; he introduced modern printing technology to India;He encouraged modern science education in Indian languages; He translated Ramayana in English; He edited a English magazine “Friendof  India”, to focus social reform. Hewas instrumental in bringing law against practice of Sati ( widow encouraged  to burn along with deceased husband as anoble act ). He faced various challenges from various sections of society in this venture. Wikimedia will alsoface various challenges of similar nature and new ones in its evolution. I want to focus on this analogy : Willam Carey’s   Vision:    Every Indian is to be saved; Every Indian to have a copy of Bible in His language Every Indian to have a copy of New Testament Every Indian to have at least access to refer New Testament in his language; Wikimedia Foundation’s Vision: Every Indian to have access to sum of  human knowledge Every Indian to have a copy of encyclopedia (latest) in language of his choice Every Indian to have access to encyclopedia (latest) in language of his choice Now currently in Indiathere are many Bibles available; In English language,one can get variousformats and various commentaries; Bibles are available in major Indian languages. But there will be few standardoptions; The language style is not contemporary; You will not find variouscommentaries and various formats; The market is very limited. Any educatedIndian will not pick up a Bible, even if it is free and in his mothertongue and read it for educationalpurposes. Bibles are read only by committed believers and theologians andresearch workers. Most exposed to English education will use Bible in English, even he has a copy of  Bible in his mother tongue; Instead of  trying to give access to bible, themissionary gives a tract with salvation message, later gospel, later New Testamentand then the believer will ask for Bible; If needed and possible, give  training in English so that he can accessBibles and commentaries in English; When William Carey was in favour of native languages for missionary aims and education, other British reformers favoured education in English for smallsection of society who will exposed to developments in science, technology,humanities and politics; who will act as bridge between the Indian nativesand western developments. Looking back, I venture to say that missionaries should have focused of popularization of selected song and stories from Bibles – like Psalm 23, Lord’s Prayer, stories from OldTestament and Gospels; When people took interest in Biblical themes and the need developed, they should have attempted translations; Just like Bible is least read,encyclopedia is least read; In libraries, they remain like a show piece; Entry in encyclopedia is composed based on a lot of constraints; experts decide what is worthy of mention; Most of the users will find that their needs are not met;wikimedia has a lot of edge over the conventional production of encyclopedia. Here atleast there is an intensive collobration between developers and users; Yet encyclopedia is a utopian theme; even if good encyclopedias are developed by few committed volunteers in various Indian languages, their use will be very limited. What is needed is active users; encyclopedia should be developed with a critical size of users; Wikimedia Foundtion India should enter into popular mind in intensive way for realization of its utopian dreams; One suggestion is to produce a ebook of “Lilavathi by Bhaskaracharya for Management Aspirants”; As a pilot project just make this following poem known toevery one appearing for CAT (common admission test for admission to management degree). Whilst making love a necklace   broke. A row of pearls mislaid. One sixth fell to the floor. One fifth upon the bed. The young woman saved one third of them. One tenth were caught by her lover. If six pearls remained upon the string How many pearls were there altogether?