Creating Knowledge Resources in Indian languages - Prof. V Srinivasa Chakravarthy

in the western world, there is a continuous tradition of science popularization that aims at bringing scientific understanding to the doorstep of the common man. in india, such a tradition is somewhat broken, and in indian languages it is negligible. it was keeping this in mind that nearly 15 years ago, i began to write books in telugu mainly targeting high school children. my effort began with translating a series of around30 short popular science books by isaac asimov - the how did we find out? series. biographies of newton, einstein, srinivasa ramanujan, jagadish chandra bose and galileo were written. charles darwin’s autobiography was translated. science fiction is a great way to get young readers inspired by science. i have translated jules verne’s journey to the center of the earth and a short story by arthur clarke titled jupiter fiveinto telugu. i have also tried my hand at an original sci-fi novel, meant for young readers, called akaasaveedhiloaparanjibomma. in this novel, the protagonists, a 7th grader named amogh and petite robot named vissu, follow a series of clues jet setting around the solar system searching for anuhya, amogh’s little sister who was abducted by evil robot mercenaries.  their travels lead them to a strange city on the clouds of venus.science histories give a deep insight into the development of scientific ideas. among science histories, i have translated into telugu the books written by asimov on the history of biology and chemistry. i have also written a history of astronomy, which covers the story from the astronomy of the ancient world to the newtonian revolution. i have written a history of rocketry starting from the early disastrous attempts of daedalus and icarus to contemporary achievements including mangalyaan and chandrayaan to more futuristic visions of interstellar travel. a recent translation effort includes carl sagan’s cosmos, a translation that was possible with the kind support of ann druyan trust.  research conducted for writing science histories has ignited my interest in general world history and mythology. the common man in india often confuses mythology with history, placing rama and ashoka on the same historical timeline. it might be useful to create a vast literature of world mythologies in indian languages. as a tiny first step in that direction i have written a book on the three legendary heroes of greek mythology – hercules, perseus and jason.  in popular thinking, india is unparalleled in its ancient origins, a perception that often fuels baseless cultural chauvinism.  there needs to be a more objective appreciation of the history of other world cultures and our own past with respect to that of others. to this end, i have recently written a history of ancient roman civilization in telugu narrating the story from the origins of rome in the 7th century bc to the downfall of the western roman empire towards the end of the 5th century ad. this 360-page manuscript is currently getting published.i have also translated two books on education by american educationist john holt titled learning all the time and how children learn? holt’s writings were a great influence on the american school system during the ‘80s and a strong inspiration behind the home schooling movement. overall, it is a writing effort comprising of 75 books spanning 6,000 pages. a similar science writing effort in tamil was coordinated by dr pragathi, an alum of iit madras, which resulted in translation 24 books from the how did we find out? series by asimov. indian languages have a proud literary heritage but are poorly fitted to the needs of the 21stcentury. i believe that indian language literatures must be adequately modernized and expanded by massive infusion of knowledge content. creation of such knowledge resources will empower 90 per cent of indians who are not english literate.  it may even herald an indian renaissance.dr. v. srinivasa chakravarthy obtained his b.tech. from iit madras, m.s./phd from the university of texas at austin. he received postdoctoral training in the neuroscience department at baylor college of medicine, houston. the computational neuroscience lab (cns lab) that he heads works on developing computational models of brain function. a faculty in the department of biotechnology, bhupat and jyoti mehta school of biosciences, indian institute of technology madras, dr. v. srinivas is the author of two books in neuroscience. he is a prolific science writer in telugu and is also the inventor of a novel script called bharati, a unified script for indian languages. prof. v srinivasa chakravarthy can be reached at ee.iitm.ac.inor +91 95000 69322.