Fwd: 25 Years of Wikipedia: What Worked and What Didn’t for Indic Languages - January 2026

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From: Open Knowledge Initiatives - India <con...@oki-india.org>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb, 2026, 9:00 am
Subject: 25 Years of Wikipedia: What Worked and What Didn’t for Indic Languages - January 2026
To: <neecha...@gmail.com>

Open Knowledge Initiatives, IIIT-Hyderabad 25 Years of Wikipedia: What Happened and What Didn’t for Indic Languages - By Pavan Santhosh (OKI, IIIT-H) Image Credits: By Pavan santhosh.s - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 This January marks 25 years since the idea of Wikipedia was born. Over these years, Wikipedia has grown into a foundational part of the modern internet and a global movement for knowledge creation. An important, though often overlooked, part of this story is its multilingual dimension. For over two decades, Wikipedia editions and Wikimedia communities in many Indic languages, such as Urdu, Bangla, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, and so on, have been active. Active or otherwise, Wikipedia has a basic presence in 50+ languages. Beyond Wikipedia, some languages have also contributed to sister projects like Wikisource and Wiktionary, expanding access to free knowledge. A widely held belief in India is that Indian languages are meant mainly for conversation, entertainment, or literature, and not for producing or sharing knowledge. Indian-language Wikipedias have consistently challenged this assumption. At the same time, as volunteer-driven and decentralised projects, their growth has been uneven, with phases of intense activity and quieter periods. Understanding this journey requires looking at both these sides together: Read more News - Curated by Subodh Kulkarni (OKI, IIIT-H) Vaani Enhances Tamil Spell-Checking During the last quarter of 2025, Vaani, a Tamil spellchecker and language support tool designed to improve the quality of Tamil digital content, successfully organised the online spelling hunt #Tamilvettai, a gamified public campaign inviting users to spot and report Tamil language errors online, with top contributors receiving cash prizes. MORE DETAILS: here. Contributed by: Neechalkaran Image Credits: By Neechalkaran - Own work, Used under fair use for educational purposes Digitising Santali indigenous print cultures from Bangladesh A vital project is currently underway to digitise the indigenous print culture of the Santali language in Bangladesh. Supported by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme, this initiative focuses on preserving rare books and manuscripts from 1900–1960. By digitizing 10,000 images, the project ensures that Santali’s transition from an oral to a written tradition, including hymns, chants, and folklore, is protected for future generations of scholars and speakers. MORE DETAILS: Project details Contributed by: Rahi Soren From Oral Tradition to Textbooks: Sherdukpen Enters the Classroom To preserve their heritage, Arunachal’s Sherdukpen community is formalising the Mey language for schools. By developing a Roman script and dictionary, they aim to introduce it as a mandatory third language to ensure youth fluency. MORE DETAILS: Story Shared by: Subodh Kulkarni Image Credits: By Sinchita Parbat - Own work, Used under fair use for educational purposes Jharkhand Scales Up Native Language Learning in 1,080 Schools In a major step towards Indic language education, Jharkhand has expanded its multilingual education (MLE) programme to over 1,080 schools across eight districts. Supported by UNICEF and the Language Learning Foundation, the initiative enables students to learn in their mother tongues, including Mundari, Ho, Kharia, Kurukh, and Santali. By using native languages as the foundation for early-grade learning, the project aims to build student confidence and bridge the gap between home and school environments. MORE DETAILS: News article Shared by: Subodh Kulkarni Bahu Bhasa Network Bahu Bhasa Follow-up Workshops Launched in January Following the Bahu Bhasa event held in November 2025 on Indian languages, policy, technology, and community, the OKI–IIITH team initiated a new series of monthly learning and discussion sessions in January. The first workshop, held on 30 January 2026, focused on “How Copyrights and Licenses Impact Our Languages.” The session explored Indian copyright law, Creative Commons and free licenses, and how better licensing awareness can strengthen language activism, preservation, and knowledge sharing. The workshop was led by Giovanna Fontenelle (Wikimedia Foundation) and Pavan Santhosh (OKI, IIIT-Hyderabad), marking the beginning of sustained engagement through the Bahu Bhasa network. The recording of the workshop is available under CC-BY License on Wikimedia Commons (click here) &YouTube (click here). February 2026! List of celebrations, commemorations and other important dates for Indic Languages. International Mother Language Day - Commemoration of the 1952 Bengali Language Movement in Bangladesh. Rajasthani Bhasha Diwas - Celebrated by literary and social organisations to demand the inclusion of the language in the 8th Schedule. Marathi Bhasha Diwas - Birthday of V. V. Shirwadkar (Kusumagraj), celebrated as a day of Marathi language pride. About us Provide information about your team, including photos or sketches and contact information. Provide a way for readers to send feedback, subscribe, or share the newsletter, if applicable. To learn more about Bahu Bhasa, please visit our website (https://bahubhasa.oki-india.org). Feedback & suggestions We value your inputs! Share your feedback, suggestions, or ideas about our programs and initiatives. Your perspectives help us better develop the newsletter further. Please write your thoughts to us at conta...@research.iiit.ac.in Licensing and Disclaimer Copyright and Licensing: Unless otherwise noted, all content in this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). All media files are similarly licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless explicitly specified with alternative attribution. Any unlicensed third-party media used in this publication are included under fair use provisions for educational and non-commercial purposes. Disclaimer: This newsletter contains links to external websites. We are not responsible for the content or practices of third-party sites. Views and opinions expressed in contributed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OKI or IIIT-Hyderabad. Feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues and friends interested in open knowledge and multilingual digital inclusion. 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