Tim Starling wrote:
Choice of language is a political
issue, see e.g.
http://www.languageinindia.com/feb2004/langnewsfeb2004.html
I think the production of content accessible to less well educated
people who aren't connected to the Internet is a goal in line with
Wikipedia's mission. Much closer to our mission than a producing a
species database, in any case. Perhaps there might be funding available
for generating content in these languages.
There are, of course, two solutions to this problem. One is to help
less-well-educated people become better educated, which in India means
learning English (or, to some extent, Hindi). The other is to produce
content in less-widely-spoken languages of India.
As you noted, the choice is a political one, and I'm not sure we ought
to be in the business of running political campaigns. Providing
resources for anyone to work on a Wikipedia in any language they choose,
sure; but to actively promote the use of particular languages over other
languages isn't our place.
-Mark