New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia on Thursday emphasised 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 translating terms from English to Hindi.

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 prioritising our own knowledge traditions,” he added.

Organised by the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) under the Education Ministry in collaboration with Jamia's Department of Political Science, the workshop brought together scholars from across the country to translate key social science terms reflecting Indian history, geography and culture.

Prof Asif stressed that translation goes beyond replacing words, requiring sensitivity to context across languages listed in the Eighth Schedule and beyond. He praised the 13-member expert group preparing the glossary.

Workshop coordinator Prof Naved Jamal traced the effort to Mahatma Gandhi's promotion of Hindi and Hindustani, and Bhartendu Harishchandra's call for intellectual growth in one's own language,while recalling the contribution of physicist and educationist Prof D S Kothari, former CSTT chair.