A translation revolution for an inclusive, prosperous India

Source: The post is based on an article “A translation revolution for an inclusive, prosperous India” published in the Indian Express on 3^rd August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 1 Indian Art and Culture

Relevance: The National Language Translation Missions

News: Recently, the Artificial Intelligence for Bharat (AI4Bharat) Centre at IIT Madras was established with support from Rohini and Nandan Nilekani, and Microsoft.  It aims to bring Indian languages, to parity with respect to English in AI technologies, with open-source contributions in datasets, models, and apps.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched the National Language Translation Mission. Under the mission, the government launched Bhashini platform, which is a language translation ecosystem based on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The platform would align central ministries, state governments, big tech companies, start-ups, publishers, universities, NGOs, and citizens.

Some developments related to the translation revolution in India

Around 100+ models of language translation have been uploaded into Bhashini’s Universal Language Contribution API(ULCA), and the Bhasha Daan (Creating datasets by crowdsourcing).

Some models created include IndicBERT (a language model in 12 languages), IndicTrans (translation model used by India’s Supreme Court), IndicXlit (transliteration model in 20 languages), IndicWav2Vec (speech-recognition model), and IndicBART (language generation model).

What is the significance of the translation revolution in India?

India is rich in linguistic diversity. For Example, there are 22 official languages, newspapers in 35 languages, and 1,200 languages spoken in India. This diversity is a treasure chest of Indian knowledge which remains locked so far.

The Indian national movement’s operating units were organized around language rather than British administration units like Madras Presidency, United Provinces, Bombay Presidency, etc. These units contributed to Indian Independence.

The translation revolution will expand the global knowledge base, unlock Indian treasures for every Indian, and raise the share of the internet in Indian languages.

It would provide a better and more effective communication medium for Indian society. For example, it would enable a webinar being held in the Hindi language that could be heard live by a participant in Tamil.  Further, a book published in the English language could simultaneously be available in 22 Indian languages.

What are the challenges of the translation revolution?

As per Vladimir Nabokov’s 1941 essay, there are three sources of evil in translation — ignorance, laziness, and prejudice.

There are limitations of translation by software based on uniquely human skills and emotions.

What should be done?

(1) It should be ensured that the translation technology should assist the translators, not replace them.

(2) It should be understood that languages are not a collection of words but living, breathing organisms holding the connections of a culture. For example, Himachal Pradesh’s 16 languages have 200 words for snow.

(3) While focusing on language translation between Indian languages, the government should not forget English as a link language, scale tool, and software vehicle. The reasons for the inclusion of English are:

(a) In 1919, Gandhiji wrote an article in Young India suggesting that real education was impossible through a foreign medium.

(b) B R Ambedkar supported the adoption of English in the Constituent Assembly debates because it was equidistant from all communities and would blunt traditional advantages.

(c) English is a vocational skill that creates labor mobility, wage premiums and resumes signaling.

(d) The translation to English can raise the viability of regional publishers, regional language writers, and regional language translators. For example, Geetanjali Shree has won the Booker Prize for her English translation of the Hindi novel, Ret Samadhi