Centre for Internet and Society

Tulu Wikipedia gets some push

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T15:20:04Z

Tulu Wikipedia, which was launched in 2007, is still in incubation stage, according to UB Pavanaja, Programme Officer at the Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society.

The article was published in the Hindu Businessline on December 13, 2014

Speaking at a technical session on ‘Tulu in technology’ as part of Global Tulu Festival in Mangaluru on Saturday, he said that now some push has been given for reviving Tulu Wikipedia.

Workshops on Tulu Wikipedia were conducted in March, April and November this year. The number of Tulu articles in Wikipedia was 135 in January 2014. It has increased to around 750 now, he said.

Referring to the lack of encyclopaedic knowledge in Tulu language, he said there is a need to give push for creating encyclopaedic knowledge in Tulu in such a situation.

Steps should be taken to contribute entries for Tulu Wikipedia regularly to keep it live. Those who work for Tulu Wikipedia should meet regularly to discuss future course of action.

He said that Wikipedia entries in Tulu language can be made under the URL http://bitly.com/tuluwiki

A live Tulu Wikipedia will help bring pressure on the Government to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the India Constitution, he said.

Tulu-speaking people can request for including the Tulu script in Unicode, if there is a live Tulu Wikipedia, he added.

It may be mentioned here that works in Tulu language are prominently written in Kannada script, as Tulu script has not gained acceptability.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/hindu-businessline-december-13-2014-tulu-wikipedia-gets-some-push

Tulu Wikipedia Editathon to Improve Quality of Articles in Tulu Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2016-05-07T15:43:42Z

The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) organized a Wikipedia editathon for improving Tulu Wikipedia. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja conducted the sessions.

Dr. Kishore Kumar Rai, Principal of Shri Ramakrishna PU College, who himself is an active Tulu and Kannada Wikipedian provided the lab for this activity. Any Wikipedian (Tulu/Kannada) can walk-in and make use of the lab to edit Wikipedia. He has also procured more than 100 Tulu books from Tulu Sahitya Academy which will be kept there for reference.

Agenda

Improve the quality of articles in Tulu Wikipedia
Increase the length of short articles
Add inter-wiki links
Add references
Add images
Add categories
Improve language

The event will continue in June. More details can be accessed here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon-to-improve-quality-of-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia

Tulu Wikipedia Editathon

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T05:12:18Z

The Access to Knowledge team from the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore is organizing a Tulu Wikipedia Editathon on April 19, 2014 at Balmatta Computer Centre, Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja is conducting the workshop.


Above: Photo from Tulu Wikipedia editathon program at Mangalore on Apr 19, 2014 (by U.B.Pavanaja, CC-BY-3.0 S.A.)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon

Tulu Wikipedia Conference in Mangaluru

praskrishna — 2016-09-22T23:50:18Z

A Tulu Wikipedia conference organized by the Times of Kudla (Tulu name for Mangaluru) newspaper was held at Malki, near Mangaluru on August 13 and 14, 2016. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja gave a presentation on Tulu Wikipedia.

Prominent Tulu Wikipedians Dr. Vishwanatha Badikana and Dr. Kishore Kumar Rai also talked about their experiences of making Tulu Wikipedia live.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/tulu-wikipedia-conference-in-mangaluru

Tulu Wikipedia - Coverage in Vijaya Karnataka

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T16:36:09Z

This is the coverage in Vijaya Karnataka on December 15.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/tulu-wikipedia-december-15-2014-coverage-in-vijaya-karnataka

Tulu Wikipedia (Coverage in VijayaVani)

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T16:30:57Z

Media coverage in Vijayavani.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/tulu-wikipedia-coverage-in-vijayavani

Tulu Wiki may go live soon as writers work day and night

praskrishna — 2016-05-03T02:17:10Z

An article about Tulu Wikipedia progress was published in the Times of India, Mangaluru edition on April 30, 2016.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/tulu-wiki-may-go-live-soon-as-writers-work-day-and-night

Tulu Wiki Editathon

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T05:10:04Z

Tulu Wiki Editathon

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Tulu Wiki

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T03:38:19Z

Tulu Wiki

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Tulu Wiki

praskrishna — 2016-05-03T01:36:00Z

Tulu Wiki

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/TimesofIndiaMangaluruApr302016.jpg

Tulu takes a major Wiki leap, all thanks to a dedicated team

praskrishna — 2016-08-22T16:38:47Z

Tulu is one of the five Dravidian languages but it has the least number of speakers. Though it has a script, lack of usage has made it almost obsolete, forcing Tulu writers to write in Kannada. This has, however, benefited Tulu today, allowing it to boast of its own Wikipedia

The article by Akram Mohammed was published in the Indian Express on August 21, 2016. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was quoted. Also mirrored in Nyooz on August 22, 2016.

Anyone who proposes a Wikipedia in a new language knows the labour between the proposal stage and the period it goes live. The long phase usually erodes the enthusiasm and in many cases, the proposal never passes the incubation period. In the case of Tulu Wikipedia, there were a few determined to ensure it saw the light of the day.

Like Vasanth CN, who had rallied for the Wikipedia page since it was first proposed in 2008. A native of Dharmasthala, the language enthusiast detailed how tcy.wikipedia.org came into being. “When it was first proposed in 2008, there were six people behind it,” he recalled. After a while, the Board of Trustees and Language Committee of Wikipedia accepted the proposal.

Then came the incubation period, stretching over eight years, where enthusiasm ebbed and swelled among the parties working for a Tulu Wikipedia page. “If you see the Wikipedia homepage, you see a lot of system messages. Our task was to translate these system messages first. By 2011-12, we had succeeded in generating about 120 articles related to the Tulu language and the region in which it is spoken,” he said.The tricky part was to get the page active. It needed volunteers and they were hard to come by. “For a Wikipedia page to become live, we required at least 600 articles. Moreover, we also required at least five active volunteers who could contribute content or edit existing pages” he said.

It took several workshops at different venues to get the numbers.

Vasanth told Express that the motivation behind the project was to ensure a recognition for the language and to help it evolve. “It is important to have a knowledge base in the local language,” he said. At present, the page has over 780 articles. “If there is encouragement from government agencies such as the Tulu Academy, we can easily increase the content,” he said. He added that further support was required to upload works of ancient and modern Tulu literature, in online avenues such as wikisource.

U B Pavanaja from Centre for Internet and Society, said that efforts picked up in 2014 to make the page live. Commenting on the significance of the language, he said that Tulu had a rich heritage. Several religious books and works of literature had been translated to Tulu during the late 18th century, which included the Bible. In coastal districts, Tulu can be chosen as an optional subject today, he said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/indian-express-august-21-2016-akram-mohammed-tulu-takes-a-major-wiki-leap-all-thanks-to-a-dedicated-team

Tulu gets official Wikipedia page, but Mumbai linguists say more is needed

praskrishna — 2016-08-22T02:43:08Z

Sitting in his Sunkadakatte home in Bengaluru, Dr UB Pavanaja still recalls the moment when he was at the WikiConference India 2016 in Chandigarh earlier this month. Academicians from all over India had gathered at the event, to share their views about issues related to India on Wikipedia. While the talks were still in progress, Katherine Maher, executive director, Wikimedia Foun-dation, USA, paused to make an announcement.

The article by Anju Maskeri was published in Mid-day on August 21, 2016. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was quoted.

“The Tulu Wikipedia page has just gone live,” she boomed into the microphone. “It was a moment of great joy because we were working on this project for the last eight years,” says Pavanaja, programme manager (Indian languages) at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, and one of the mentors of Tulu Wikipedia.

UNESCO has listed Tulu as one of the endangered languages, which is at the risk of falling out of use, because it has a few surviving speakers. Pavanaja says the Wikipedia page is a medium for people to access material on Tulu. “Today, it’s the first page that appears on Google, so the accessibility of the language will hopefully increase manifold,” Pavanaja says.

The Mumbai connect

Sukesh Shetty, owner of Hindmata Hotel in Tardeo, who is continuing the tradition of running a restaurant business started by his grandfather, feels his connection with the language is restricted to his interaction at home. “I ensure I speak in Tulu with my children. But, my four-year-old speaks Marathi better than Tulu because we have a Mah-arashtrian maid,” he laughs.

The 46-year-old is part of the Bunta Sangha, an organisation devoted towards rallying the Tulu-speaking Bunt community.

Shetty feels the lack of availability of Tulu literature and movies in Mumbai are responsible for the declining interest in the language. “You don’t get to watch any Tulu films because they are never screened here. We don’t even have a channel that telecasts Tulu movies. But, the Wikipedia page is a step ahead,” he says.

The Tulu Wikipedia page (tcy.wikipedia.org) went live this month. Currently, there are around 200 registered users of the page

Accessing Tulu

Wikipedia is currently available in 22 Indian languages, including, Assamese, Bish-nupriya, Kashmiri, Konkani, Newari, Odia, Pali and Urdu among others. With the inclusion of Tulu, the count has gone up to 23. “There are about 200 registered users (editors) of Tulu Wikipedia. On an average, we have around eight to 10 active editors. Dr Vishwanatha Badikana, a Kannada professor, and engineer Bharatesha Alasandemaj-alu are the highest contributors,” says Dr Pavanaja.

Tulu Wikipedia was in “incubation” since 2008. This term is used to describe similar online encyclopedias, which are still waiting to go “live”. “Tulu is written in the Kannada script, but the language is believed to be 2,000 years old. But, to create a Wiki page, we needed to prove that it’s a classical language and deserves recognition. We had to submit sizeable amount of literature, ancient manuscripts and literary work for the language to qualify,” he says.

Dr Badikana, who works as a History professor at St Alosious College, Mangalore University, says they had to generate awareness about the language through workshops. “Tulu is predominantly an oral language, and hence, people don’t take interest in documenting it. With Kannada being state-recognised, it’s more popular. We had to hold writing workshops in Tulu to motivate people,” he says.

A languishing script

Of late, Tulu — believed to be one of the oldest Dravidian languages — has been generating great interest amongst linguists and academicians alike. The excavation of an ancient manuscript, Tulu Devimahatme, a prose work like the Mahabharata, from the 15th century and two epic poems written in 17th century, namely Sri Bhagavata and Kaveri by language experts in the last few years have revived interest in the language.

However, a major grouse in the community has been its non-inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which lists the official languages of the country. Presently, it recognises 22 languages with Tulu being the only Dravidian language to have been left out.

Professor Tukaram Poojary, who was instrumental in setting up the Rani Abbakka Tulu Research Centre in Bantwal, Karnataka in 1995, has sent a memorandum to Pranab Mukherjee, President of India for the inclusion of the language in the Eight Schedule.

“Scholars like the nineteenth missionary-linguist Bishop Robert Caldwell have called this language ‘peculiar and very interesting’,” says Poojary. According to him, Tulu is one of the most highly developed languages in the Dravidian family. “But it never received any royal patronisation as was seen with other Dravidian languages such as Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam,” he says.

Shimantur Chandrahas Suvarna, a popular Tulu writer based in Borivli has been diligently writing short stories, poems and novels in the language for the last 40 years. “Although, I write in both Kannada and Tulu, I have been focusing more on the latter, because if we don’t speak and document the language, it will die,” says the 61-year-old, who moved to Mumbai in 1979 after his father set up an Udipi hotel called Hotel Sadanand in Mazgaon.

Suvarna feels the lack of serious literature before the 15th century has hampered Tulu’s claim as one of the legitimate South Indian languages. “In the first half of the 19th century, the German missionaries popularised the language. They produced the Tulu lexicon and a Tulu-English dictionary. But, after the Christian missionaries started printing the Bible and related literature in Kannada, the old script was discarded and the Kannada script was adopted to write Tulu,” he said.

Today, there are no books or literature in the Tulu script and there are only a handful of tuluvas, who can read the script, says Suvarna.

According to him, during the last three years, there has been a surge in literary interest with more than 100 writers contributing articles, poems to a quarterly journal published by the Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy Research.

Last year, the University of Mumbai, in collaboration with the Kannada department, and the Rani Abbakka Tulu Research Centre, held a series of lectures on the inclusion of Tulu in the Eighth Schedule. Professor GN Upadhya, head of the department of Kannada at MU, who was part of the series, feels the issue has now become political. “There’s no political willingness on part of the MPs and MLAs to lobby for this language, because it doesn’t constitute a vote bank,” he says.

A language in restoration

Around two million people in the southwest part of Karnataka and the Kasaragod district of Kerala speak Tulu. In Mumbai, about 10 lakh people speak the language. At the beginning of the 20th century, the practice of writing the language in the Tulu script witnessed a decline and was gradually abandoned in favour of the Kannada script. It was only in 2010 that Tulu began to be taught as a subject at the higher primary level schools of coastal Karnataka.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/mid-day-anju-maskeri-august-21-2016-tulu-gets-official-wikipedia-page-but-mumbai-linguists-say-more-is-needed

Tulika

praskrishna — 2013-07-29T10:57:51Z

Tulika Pandey

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Trump

praskrishna — 2019-12-12T16:51:59Z

Donald Trump

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Trolled

praskrishna — 2017-05-26T00:49:57Z

Trolling

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