Jamia Millia Islamia emphasises Indian knowledge system in national language workshop

NEW DELHI: Jamia Millia Islamia on Thursday underlined the need to strengthen Indian languages in higher education as it concluded a five-day national workshop to develop a Learner's Glossary of Social Sciences from English to Hindi. Addressing the valedictory session, Vice-Chancellor Prof Mazhar Asif said Indian universities must move away from a "colonial mindset" and place the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) at the centre of learning.

"A false sense of modernity has had a toxic effect on our minds. We need to correct this by giving priority to our own knowledge traditions," he said. According to a statement, the workshop was organised by the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) under the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Jamia's Department of Political Science., Under the initiative, scholars from across the country worked on translating key social science terms in a way that reflects Indian history, geography, and culture.

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Translation goes beyond words

The vice-chancellor said that translation involved more than replacing words, and that scholars must remain sensitive to context while working across languages listed in the Eighth Schedule and beyond. Drawing on his experience as a translator and linguist, he urged the team to remain alert to the limits of literal translation and praised the 13-member expert group preparing the glossary.

Workshop coordinator Prof Naved Jamal traced the roots of the effort to Mahatma Gandhi's push for Hindi and Hindustani and Bhartendu Harishchandra's call for intellectual growth in one's own language. He also recalled the contribution of physicist and educationist Prof D S Kothari, who once chaired the CSTT, according to the statement.