[Wikipedia-l] Indian languages and grants (was Re: Combined effort)

[Delirium]

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